England in big U/21 win
Four tries for Ojo
In cold Biella up near the Alps England beat Italy 48-3 in an Under-21 encounter on Thursday. Speedster Topsy Ojo scored four tries for the winners.
Victory was virtually decide din the first ten minutes as Ojo, who had destroyed Italy at Under-17 level a few years ago, went over for two tries to make the score 10-0. It took England another 20 minutes to get their second points, set up by a driving maul from which scrumhalf Ben Foden scored. Geraghty converted. 17-0. Minutes later Ojo intercepted and completed his hat-trick. Jordan Crane converted. 24-0.
Italy's fullback Riccardo Robuschi kicked a penalty to make the score 24-3 at the break.
Four minutes into the second half Ojo got his fourth followed by tries by Ryan Lamb, James Haskell and Dylan Hartley.
England's coach Jim Mallinder said afterwards: “Tonight was a total team effort. We planned to try to ensure we kept our defence intact and we achieved that and we tried to do the basics well.
“It’s starting to come together well for us and you can already see the benefits of the team being together for 11 days now, there’s a real teamship developing and I think we showed that tonight.”
Scorers:
For England:
Tries: Ojo 4, Foden, Lamb, Haskell, Hartley
Cons: Geraghty 3, Crane
For Italy
Pen: Robuschi
Italy Under-21: 15 Riccardo Robuschi, 14 Michele Sepe, 13 Marco Neethling, 12 Enrico Patrizio, 11 Diego Varani, 10 Enrico Ceccato I, 9 Fabio Semenzato, 8 Paul Derbyshire, 7 Nicola Cattina, 6 Max Castrogiovanni, 5 Alberto Saccardo (captain), 4 Franco Rendace, 3 Andrea Michelini, 2 Lorenzo Giovanchelli, 1 Marco Giazzon
Replacements: 16 Valerio Vicerè, 17 Andrea Ceccato, 18 Marco Pelizzari, 19 Andrea Barbieri, 20 Michele Sutto, 21 Gabriele Brussolo, 22 Emmanuel Billot
England Under-21: 15 Shane Geraghty, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Matt Cornwell (captain), 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Ben Foden, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Michael Hills, 6 James Haskell, 5 Tom Croft, 4 Richard Blaze, 3 David Wilson, 2 Chris Brooker, 1 Dylan Hartley
Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Tom Ryder, 19 Chris Robshaw, 20 Nick Runciman, 21 James Hoyle, 22 Thom Evans
Referee: David Changleng (Scotland)
