A MUCH-IMPROVED second-half performance, orchestrated by Shane Geraghty, gave England Saxons an impressive win over an experienced Ireland A side at Welford Road on Friday night.
The Saxons were playing less than fluent rugby when Geraghty moved from inside-centre to stand-off after injury forced Ryan Lamb to leave the field after 17 minutes. They had established an early lead after London Irish hooker David Paice burrowed over from short range, but though their defence was solid, slow ball, a gusting wind and their own impatience to force the game resulted in a series of mistakes with ball in hand.
Paice’s poor throwing at the lineout did not help, and the Saxons went into the break two points down after another lineout was stolen by Ryan Cald-well and the ball carried on by Trevor Hogan before Isaac Boss gave Tommy Bowe enough space to beat Nick Abendanon’s attempted cover tackle.
The second half was a different story. The wind dropped, and with the forwards, led by captain Jordan Crane, winning good, quick ball, Geraghty began to impose himself. A perfectly placed cross-kick, caught and touched down by his old schoolfriend Tom Varndell, lifted his confidence, and from then on the 21-year-old controlled the game with a series of well-timed passes, incisive breaks and intelligent kicks out of hand. A further try for Varndell, set up by an impressive drive by George Skivington and brilliant pass from the back of his hand by Dylan Hartley, and a last-minute dive into the corner by Delon Armitage were a minimal return for a dominant final quarter.
“I was really disappointed with my performance in the first half, I think the whole team was,” said Geraghty afterwards. “They were effective at slowing the game down, but our basic rugby let us down, and I maybe kicked too often when I should have kept ball in hand.
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“We needed to control the ball better. We did that in the second half, and when we started getting quick ball we looked pretty dangerous. The forwards must take a lot of the credit. At half-time [coach] Graham Rown-tree took them off on his own to have a quiet word. After that they really got on top and made it easy for the backs to play.
“I made a little half-break at the beginning of the second half which got me going, and then I saw Tom was standing very wide and flat and put him in at the corner, which was a great feeling.”
However the London Irish back, who won two senior caps as a replacement during last season’s Six Nations tournament, acknowledged that his best chance of an England recall may lie at inside-centre.
“The way things are there’s more of an opening at 12, because you’d probably say Toby Flood wasn’t an out-and-out 12, and I’d be very happy to get a chance there. The way England want to play is to have ball players at both 10 and 12 because it puts more pressure on their opponents by keeping them guessing, which is how we work at London Irish. I’ve played both positions this season, and when the game opens up and you’re on the front foot, there’s not a massive difference between them.”
Crane, who must have pushed him close for the man of the match award, acknowledged the importance of Geraghty’s contribution. “He played a great game, for sure. As for myself, I’m trying to do a few different things instead of just crashing the ball up the middle, and seeing where that takes me. It helped that there are a lot of players in this group who’ve come up together, including Shane, and though it took us time to settle, our familiarity with each other’s games showed in the second half.”
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Saxons head coach Steve Bates insisted patience had been the key. “We didn’t play as well as we would have liked in the first half, but our defence was outstanding, and once we got on top there were times during the final half-hour when we looked pretty slick.
“In terms of the senior team, England are fortunate to have a lot of good footballers vying for the stand-off position and Shane didn’t get an opportunity to show what he can do at 12, so it’s hard to say what his chances might be.”
Geraghty, who was born in the Midlands to an Irish father and a mother of Irish parentage, and played for the Irish youth team before deciding his future lay with England, said even his father had been “chuffed” after the game.
“He’s usually a bit quiet when Ireland are involved, but the only time I’ve seen him as happy as that before was when I made my full senior debut,” he said.
Lamb, who left the field holding his right shoulder, will have the injury properly assessed on his return to Gloucester.