Tonga no match for Saxons

England Saxons eased past Tonga at Kingsholm

England Saxons powered into the Churchill Cup final with a comprehensive 41-14 victory over Tonga at Kingsholm.

The strength of the Saxons scrum proved too much for the Pacific Islanders, who conceded three penalty tries in miserable conditions on Sunday afternoon.

The Saxons had demolished the United States in their tournament opener and were rarely troubled once again as Saracens prop Matt Stevens inspired the home side to victory with a virtuoso display in front of England boss Martin Johnson.

The first two penalty tries and a score from captain Jordan Crane had helped the Saxons to a 24-0 half-time lead, and a further penalty try plus a five-pointer from Billy Twelvetrees put a seal on a win that sets up a meeting with Canada at Sixways on Saturday.

Fly-half Rory Clegg kicked seven from seven for a personal haul of 16 points, while Sione Timani and Pepa Koloamatangi crossed for Tonga.

Destroyed

The Saxons started well with London Irish winger Topsy Ojo making two purposeful bursts down the left flank early on with home favourite Charlie Sharples just failing to take his pass from the second of those breaks.

But the first try came from a more direct route as the Saxons front row of Matt Mullan, David Paice and Stevens simply destroyed their opponents from a five-metre scrum, and referee Romain Poite did not hesitate to award a penalty try converted by Clegg.

The second try soon arrived as Clegg and then Ojo were held up just short before Crane, stepping in for the injured Luke Narraway, surged over to dot down, Clegg adding the extras for a 14-0 lead after 16 minutes.

The Saxons continued to enjoy the better of the play and they were only prevented from adding to their tally by ill-discipline at the tackle area.

Tonga only threatened sporadically, with their best movement seeing centre Suka Hufanga make a slashing break which eventually came to nothing.

Woes

And the South Sea Islanders fell further behind after 33 minutes as another powerful Saxons scrum saw the Tongan eight disintegrate and Poite march underneath the posts once again. Clegg added the conversion and a penalty on the stroke of half-time to hand Stuart Lancaster's side a 24-0 interval lead.

The Quins fly-half quickly added a further three points early in the second stanza after Tonga suffered more scrummaging woes.

But Tonga creditably hit back as a series of England penalties gave them the field position for lock Timani, who will play for the Scarlets next season, to crash over for a try converted by Kurt Morath.

Twelvetrees missed the chance to get the Saxons fourth try when he spilled the vital pass after a fine break from Clegg, and the power of Stevens at scrum time soon meant they were playing 14 men as referee Poite ran out of patience with replacement Ta'u Fainga'anuku and sin-binned the prop.

That left Tonga again defending a five-metre scrum and a man light they were again shunted backwards as they conceded a third penalty try.

Twelvetrees then got his try as replacement Mike Brown launched a brilliant counter-attack which saw Crane put a grubber through for the centre to gather and score, with Clegg continuing his 100 per cent record with the boot.

Twelvetrees was sin-binned moments later before Tonga grabbed a late consolation through flanker Koloamatangi.