St Helens Reserves v England Universities
Saturday 29th April, 1pm KO
Totally Wicked Stadium, St Helens

England Universities continue to buid for the Student World Cup in July 2017 with their second UK based friendly against St Helens Reserves. The game will be a thorough test of the student side, who defeated the Royal Air Force 26-6 earlier this month. The game kicks off at 1pm, Saturday 29th April at the Totally Wicked Stadium, St Helens.

"It's exciting for the team to be playing at a Super League stadium and it will mirror some of the grounds we will be playing at when in Australia" said Colin Baker, England Universities Head Coach. "We're really grateful to St Helens for hosting us in this fixture, it will be a thorough test of our players and allows us to see how the players perform against a very strong opposition."

Josh Hamilton and Dom Bryan will return to the squad following unavailability for the RAF game, whilst Aaron Hall,Jacob Morgan, Lewis Lord and Sam Swire also return from injury. Charlie Greene (ribs) and Jason Bass (ribs) are on the injury list, whilst Gloucestershire All Golds contingent of Malikhi Lloyd-Jones, Harry Kidd, Brad Kislingbury and Ben Stead may be unavailable owing to club commitments in the League 1 cup semi-fnal.

Entry is £5 for adults, £2 for concessions.

England have a £100,000 fundraising target for their World Cup campaign, where online donations can be made athttps://www.gofundme.com/englandunirlrl

St Helens Reserves 70 – 22 England Universities - rlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v

Jacob Morgan failed to field the high bomb from Daniel Richardson and Liam Cooper regained possession to open the scoring. Richardson was successful with the conversion. Following the restart England winger Nathan Hill stopped a certain try from Saints’ Calvin Wellington, with a ball and all tackle halting in the centre’s charge.

Matthew Flemming, having come in field to find the ball, was next to score, scampering through the England line to score a diving try in the corner, Richardson again successful from the touchline with the boot and shortly afterwards Ricky Bailey showed his Super League experience to cut through the middle of the red shirts, setting up another easy kick of Richardson.

England rallied and threatened the Saints line through Josh Halstead’s powering runs, with Matt Ross penetrating the line, but being held up and carried dead to give the Saints a 20m restart. With the England defence at sea, Richardson combined with Cooper who bagged his second try. Richardson added the extras with ease before dancing through the line to touchdown under the posts on the back of an England penalty at the restart, adding another simple kick to his tally

The student side, who never let their heads drop all game, seemed to click up a gear, made their defence work to turn the Saints over on their own terms and on the back of a sustained period of pressure, Dom Bryan got England off the mark, jinking through just wide of the sticks, but Sam Druce narrowly missed the conversion.

England continued to pressure and Jake Reed was rewarded for his tenacity, leaping out of dummy-half and going through the gap to score in front of the posts, giving Druce a conversion he couldn’t miss.

Although playing with a lot more confidence, the Students were caught napping out wide as Dave Eccleston made use of the overlap to score wide on the left flank, Richardson again on target. Mike Quickenden and Matt Ross both threatened the Saints line as England’s confidence grew further, but neither could break the solid wall of blue shirts.

England started strong after the break, with Lewis Lord moving the reds forward and Kieran Smith reaching out to find the line three minutes into the half, Druce added the extras to keep the Student side in touch.

Jack Owens nosed the Saints further ahead ten minutes into the half, shrugging defenders off as he powered under the sticks. Richardson added his lucky 7th conversion and added his 8th moments later as Bailey streaked 80 metres down field from the restart to claim his brace.

Richardson wide ball to Eccleston saw him dive in, just missing the touchline to add his second of the afternoon, whilst Richardson’ conversion bounced off the uprights marking his first miss of the day.

England, still refusing to give up, again built sustained pressure and were rewarded as Lewis Lord’s dummied from acting-half-back and burrowed through the blue defence to find the floor. Druce added the extras and again the students had a spring in their step.

Owens broke free late in the tackle count to feed Jake Spedding with ten minutes to go, with Richardson back on target. Richardson then found Eccleston out wide again a carbon copy of their previous effort, with another successful conversion from Richardson.

Owens combined with Spedding to put Fleming away for a final try with Richardson converting.

England finished with a flurry, with Zack McCombs chancing kick to the in-goal running inches too long for Jacob Morgan to capitalise on.

St Helens Reserves: Frederick Bailey, Matthew Fleming, Jake Spedding, Calvin Wellington, David Eccleston, Jack Owens, Daniel Richardson, Gregory Richards, Aaron Smith, Brad Clavering, Liam Cooper, Will Jubb, Jonah Cunningham. Subs: Jordan Gibbons, Jake Butler-Fleming, Christian Kellett, George Milton, Ben Sims

Tries: Cooper (2, 12), Flemming (5, 7icon_cool.gif, Bailey (8, 52), Richardson (15), Eccleston (35, 64, 7icon_cool.gif, Owens (50), Spedding (70)
Goals: Richardson 11/12

England Universities: Jacob Morgan, Elliot Hall, Zack McComb, Dan Harrison, Nathan Hill, Kieran Smith, Sam Druce, Aaron Hall, Jake Reed, Josh Halstead, Jack Lazenby, Marcus Stock, Matt Ross. Subs: Lewis Lord, Liam Wood, Lewis Taylor, Kieran Sherratt, Josh Hamilton, Mike Quickenden, Sam Swire, Dom Bryan, James Mason.

Tries: Bryan (27), Reed (30), Smith (43), Lord (65)
Goals: Druce 3/4