Baa-Baas narrowly fall short after lively comeback

England 35 Barbarians 26
Twickenham Sunday 30 May 2010

A Barbarians' team that could politely be summed up as being AWOL in the first 40 minutes, re-emerged from the Twickenham tunnel revitalised after the interval and almost stole the honours.
Trailing 7-32 after only 45 minutes, Xavier Rush's side found a new spirit and urgency, dominating territory and possession for long periods, putting together patient phase play and running in three tries inside 20 minutes.
But at the end, they paid the price for a first half of powder-puff tackling which England exploited to the full. The opening quarter was the stuff of nightmares with England 20 points ahead in as many minutes. Charlie Hodgson slotted two point-blank penalty goals and then added the extras to two embarrassingly easy tries for Haskell and Hape.
The first signs of Barbarian life emerged when a neat chip and gather by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde set up a try by Paul Sackey that the fly-half converted. That was cancelled out within 90 seconds as the defence was again missing in action and Ben Foden crossed for an unconverted try that sent England into a 25-7 half-time lead.
The nightmare continued on the resumption with another seven points from England, a too easy line bust by Mike Tindall converted by Ollie Barkley. Then, as if flicking a switch, the Baa-Baas saw the light. Though it was not until the 56th minute the rewards materialised. Dave Smith, a powerful addition to the armoury off the bench, finished off good work by the increasingly influential Byron Kelleher. Elissalde converted:14-32.
Nine minutes later another trump card replacement, Census Johnston, received the approval from the TMO despite the attentions of three England defenders: 19-32. A couple of near misses followed before, in the 76th minute, Cedric Heymans baffled the defence and worked Sackey clear for his second try. Again Elissalde converted: 26-32.
England, long since in static, up your jumper mode, did just that. Working their way back into the Barbarians' 22 for the first time in ages, they eventually gained a penalty in the shadow of the posts and, to the disgust of a home crowd whose sweet chariot was not so much swinging low as derailed, elected to go for goal with the last kick of the game.
Barbarians: *P M Warwick (Munster); *P H Sackey (London Wasps & England), *C D E Laulala (Cardiff Blues & New Zealand), *F Fritz (Toulouse & France), *C Heymans (Toulouse & France); *J-B Elissalde (Toulouse & France), B T Kelleher (Toulouse & New Zealand); *R Rodrigo (Stade Francais & Argentina), *B August (Biarritz & France), *J M White (Leicester & England), B J Kay (Leicester & England), R C Skeate (Toulon), *R So'oialo (Hurricanes & New Zealand), X J Rush, capt (Cardiff Blues & New Zealand), M E Williams (Cardiff Blues & Wales)
Replacements: *K J Owens (Scarlets), C A I Johnston (Toulouse & Samoa), *J Thion (Biarritz), G B Smith (Brumbies & Australia), *P Mignoni (Toulon & France), *F Estebanez (Brive), *D Smith (Hurricanes)
[* - new Barbarian]
England: B J Foden; M J Cueto, M J Tindall, S Hape, D Strettle; C C Hodgson, D S Care; J Golding, S G Thompson, P P L Doran-Jones, D Attwood, T P Palmer, J A W Haskell, N J Easter (capt), S E Armitage
Replacements: L A Mears, T A N Payne, D Ward-Smith, J P R Worsley, J Simpson, O J Barkley, M J M Tait

Referee: J Garces (France)
Attendance: 41,035