Barbarians leave it late
An England XV blew a 20-point lead as a late Tim Visser try saw the Barbarians grab a 38-32 victory at Twickenham.
Last Updated: 29/05/11 11:30pm
An England XV blew a 17-point lead as a late Tim Visser try saw the Barbarians grab a thrilling 38-32 victory at Twickenham.
Tries from Henry Trinder, Ugo Monye and James Simpson-Daniel had helped England open up a sizeable lead before their opponents came roaring back.
Visser, George Smith and Joe van Niekerk added to the first-half tries from Benoit Baby and Frederic Michalak as the Barbarians took control.
It looked like England had escaped, though, when Exeter flanker Tom Johnson crossed. However, winger Visser crossed on the last play of the game to snatch it for the Baa-Baas.
The hosts began brightly and within three minutes Trinder swooped in after latching onto a cleverly-delayed pass from Charlie Hodgson.
Clinical
Hodgson converted to give England a 7-0 lead but the Baa-Baas hit back immediately with Baby cruising around Mike Brown for the score.
Michalak added the extras to even things up but Hodgson edged his side back in front with a penalty on 16 minutes.
Two minutes later and Monye chased down his own kick to score and with the conversion successful, England found themselves 17-7 to the good.
And eight minutes later some good work from number eight Carl Fearns set Simpson-Daniel up to produce a clinical finish for a third home try.
However, the Baa-Baas struck back with just two minutes to go to the break, Michalak grabbing the interception and running in to score. The French fly-half converted his own try to cut the arrears to 22-14 at half-time.
Silenced
The invitational side raced into the lead soon after the break when first Visser scampered down the line to score his first on 48 minutes to make it 24-19.
Then, eight minutes later, Smith sniped in at the corner to level the scores. Withni four minutes the Baa-Baas had their fifth when Seru Rabeni's interception set up possession for van Niekerk to force his way over.
Michalak struck the conversion to take the score to 31-24 and give the invitational side a seven-point lead.
Johnson hit back with an England try that edged them one point clear with just eight minutes to go - only for Visser to silence the crowd in the dying moments, collecting a clever offload to barge over from close range.
