Northampton Saints : Saints Under-18s demolish England counterparts at Solihull

The Saints Academy had a good afternoon at Solihull RFC, running eight tries past England Under-18 in a 50-24 victory. Centre Nick Greenhalgh and wing Anders Mogensen led the way with a brace each and Jon Vickers, Ollie Storey, Owen Giles and Adam Martin all crossed the line as well. Daryl Veenendaal and Tom Jones shared the five conversions. A full match report will follow.

The England U18s have two squads, the Conference squad and the AER squad. The Conference squad is selected in July each year when Premiership Academies are asked to nominate their best players to attend a training camp. The squad is gradually assembled over a few months with training weekends together and a couple of warm up matches.

The players not selected in the Conference squad play for their County and Divisional squads and then are selected for the AER squad who play in a six nations tournament in March/April. The AER squad has a squad of 26 players from the Premiership Academies and had trained together and had a warm up match against Worcester.

Despite playing into a breeze in the first half the JSA started controlling the game from the kick off by running the ball at every opportunity. The first try was scored by Nick Greenhalgh after a powerful break. The second try came after excellent ball retention and Owen Giles crashed over from close range. With 20 minutes gone Greenhalgh added a second from another strong carry to open up a 19-0 lead. The physicality shown from the JSA pack was allowing the half backs Darryl Veenendaal and Tom Jones to control the match with some excellent decision making and release the outside backs.

Jon Vickers, playing his first game at hooker hit every lineout and the scrum was providing a solid platform for number eight James Ingle to make good ground.

England hit back with a couple of tries of their own to close the gap to 19-14, (despite the linesman clearly indicating a forward pass for a try). Saints went straight back on the attack and scored two more tries before the break from Vickers and Ollie Storey to take the score to 31-14. The latter came from a quick tap penalty on the half way when six players linked up for a well taken team try.

The second half was a scrappy affair with the Saints side not able to convert the chances they created. Prop Alex Waller made several charges in the match and was unlucky to have a try disallowed for an earlier infringement. The forwards worked extremely well attacking around the fringes off slow ball creating space for the backs to exploit.

Three tries from were added from the Saints back three as the England side tired from the relentless attacks with Anders Mogensen grabbing a brace and Adam Martin crossing the line.

England grabbed a consolation try at the death to make the final score 50-24 to the Saints.

The U19s are in action on Saturday 1st March when they take on Leicester at Oval Park at 11:30am.