|
 |
 | | You are in: You are in: Rugby Union |
 | | Saturday, 17 November, 2001, 16:17 GMT England run Romania ragged  Ben Cohen goes over for England's first try. England 134-0 Romania England were on record-breaking form as they overwhelmed Romania at Twickenham. In what was more of a mismatch than a match, they ran in 20 tries and racked up their highest ever number of points in an international. Charlie Hodgson marked his international debut by breaking Paul Grayson's individual points-scoring record by an England player. The 21-year-old fly-half scored 44 points, including two tries, and only the width of a post came between the Sale player and the world record.
Hodgson's club team-mate Jason Robinson opened his England try-scoring account and went on to grab a hat-trick. His second, a darting run through Romania's defence halfway through the first half, was the try of the match. Coach Clive Woodward said it had been an "outstanding" performance by his team. "I thought we played wonderfully well," he said. "We really went at them. It was a great day for England." The first new record came when Jason Leonard led the England team onto the pitch at the start of his 93rd appearance to become the world's most capped forward. The result itself was never in doubt from the moment Hodgson slotted over a penalty with two minutes on the clock.
The rout had been widely expected and perhaps the only surprise was that the home team had to wait until nine minutes had elapsed before scoring their first try. Ben Cohen marked his recall to the team by powering over - he went on to score a hat-trick, one of three England players to do so. Then the floodgates opened and England ran in nine further tries to lead 72-0 at half-time. England took a few minutes to get going again after the break, allowing Romania to make some headway into their opponent's 22 for the first time. But it was a mere blip in the overall pattern of the game and normal service was resumed when replacement Alex Sanderson marked his debut with a try. The rest of the half was spent with England running through the Romanian defence at will. The only questions left to be answered were how many points England would amass - and who would be the first player to grab a hat-trick.
Aptly enough, that honour fell to Robinson, whose pace and silky skills caused a buzz in the crowd every time he received the ball. Having broken the England record, Hodgson had a chance to overhaul the world record for an individual points tally with the very last kick of the game. But his conversion attempt curled away at the last minute and struck the post. England: 15-Jason Robinson; 14-Ben Cohen, 13-Mike Tindall, 12-Will Greenwood; 11-Dan Luger; 10-Charlie Hodgson, 9-Austin Healey; 8-Joe Worsley, 7-Neil Back (captain), 6-Lewis Moody, 5-Steve Borthwick/Tom Palmer, 4-Ben Kay, 3-Jason Leonard, 2-Mark Regan, 1-Graham Rowntree. Romania: 15-Gabriel Brezoianu; 14-Ionut Toedorescu, 13-Flaviu Dobre, 12-Nicolae Oprea, 11-Vasile Ghioc; 10-Ionut Tofan, 9-Lucian Sarbu; 8-Alin Petrache (captain), 7-Razvan Samuil, 6-Florin Corodeanu, 5-Cristian Petre, 4-Vasile Nedelcu, 3-Marcel Socaciu, 2-Petru Balan, 1-Dragos Dima. | |
Other top Rugby Union stories:  Links to more Rugby Union stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Links to more Rugby Union stories |
| ||
 | ^^ Back to top | |
| Front Page | Football | Cricket | Rugby Union | Rugby League | Tennis | Golf | Motorsport | Boxing | Athletics | Other Sports | Sports Talk | In Depth | Photo Galleries | Audio/Video | TV & Radio | BBC Pundits | Question of Sport | Funny Old Game ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMII|News Sources|Privacy | ||
E-mail this story to a friend