By Ouseburn
June 20 2003

England A Team kept the winning momentum rolling with a resounding win over Canada in the opener of the Churchill Cup. Spurred on from watching the senior squad winning down under and the urge to show Clive Woodward they can do the business too!

Canada 7 v England 43

Dave Walder got the ball rolling with a penalty try less than a minute into the game, the penalty try came following an obstruction call against Canada.

Canada’s only try came five minutes later by scrum-half Morgan Williams, and converted by Bob Ross.

Then Team England’s A side ambushed the Canadians, with two converted tries, two penalties by Walder and an unconverted try to end the first half 21-7.

England continued to attack and rack up the points in the second half, adding 22 more points on three unconverted tries and in dying minutes of the game a try by reserve Matthew Cairns converted by David Flatman.

The other try scorers for England were captain Hugh Vyvyan, hooker Andy Titterrell, scrum-half Martyn Wood, centre Fraser Waters, and wing Mark Cueto.

Walder missed a penalty kick in the first half and failed to convert three tries in the second half. However England coach Jim Mallinder was impressed "Dave Walder - he was fantastic in the way he controlled the ball and played to the game plan," The England coach also gave special mention to the play of Pete Anglesea.

This A squad is so strong, many of the players are really pushing hard for entry to the senior squad and there will be some senior players looking over their shoulders!

Teams

Canada: Fyffe, Moonlight, Witkowski, Cannon, Stanley, Ross, M. Williams, Tkachuk, Lawson, Cooke, Johnstone, Knaggs, Cudmore, Van Staveren, Banks. Replacements: Riordan, Plater, Wirachowski, Carlson, Yukes, Fairhurst, R. Smith.

England A: Scarbrough, Cueto, Waters, Paul, Christophers, Walder, Wood, Sheridan, Titterell, Green, Brown, Codling, Anglesea, Hyde, Vyvyan. Replacements: Horak, Barkley, Walshe, Hatley, Cairns, Flatman, Jones.

Ref: Kevin McCaslin (USA).