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THERE was a sensational start to England?s bid for third place in the
Student Rugby League World Cup in Australia with prop Alan Robinson being
sent off in the opening seconds of a 31-12 defeat.
Aussie referee Chris Sutton gave Robinson his marching orders for an alleged
kick at another player in the third-fourth play off at Easts Langlands Park
ground in Brisbane, Australia.
Worse was to follow as sub Scott Houston was later sin-binned and then sent
off along with French full-back Mohammad Chaabi after a melee with 15
minutes to go.
Yet as a game it was never really a dirty one and the referee spoiled it as
a spectacle.
When the incidents are forgotten France were leading 19-0 at the break with
tries from Romaric Bemba, Bruno Ormeno and Gregory Tiquet, along with three
conversions and a field goal from Dominique Vidal.
But England despite their handicap battled back well and scored tries
through Ryan Robinson and Mark Spurr. Martin Ainscough and Andy Walker
claimed a conversion each, while Tiquet got a second try for France
converted by Vidal and Thomas Valette ended the match by crossing the
England line in the dying seconds for an unconverted try.
England's man of the match was full-back Alex Clemie and for the French
Bemba was their star man.
Afterwards England coach Paul Fletcher said: "We had to make a tremendous
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effort against a very good side with at least one player off the field for
79 minutes".
"We never gave up and I am very proud of the way they never gave up. But the
match was spoiled by that early sending off" he added.
Fletcher would not comment further on the refereeing of the match but
privately he was not a happy man.
England:
5 Alex Clemie; 24 Phil Murphy,11 Matt Mulholland, 14 Chris Todd, 10 Stu
McReynolds; 18 Kevin Till, 21 Martin Ainscough; 16 Alan Robinson, 15 Ryan
Robinson, 2 Alex Benson, 4 Jon Chamberlain, 13 David Norcross, 20 Andy
Walker. Subs (All used) 12 Jon Nicholls, 17 Mark Spurr, 8 Scott Houston, 14
Wayne Parillon.
France: 1 Mohamed Chaabi; 4 Cedric Olieu, 15 Bruno Ormeno, 12 Andrew
Bentley, 19 Sylvain Teixido; 7 Gregory Tiquet, 17 Dominique Vidal; 21 Bruno
Pezet, 9 Romain Dintilhac, 10 Sebastien Amigas, 11 Thomas Valette,20 Romaric
Bemba, 13 Guillame Reffle. Subs (all used) 14 Marc Osmont, 4 Simon
Latournerie, 6 Sebastien Hascoet, 5 Robin Villa.
Referee: Chris Sutton (New South Wales)
Man of the match
England: Alex Clemie. The full-back put in another sterling performance and
was also later named in the world select side, but on the wing,
France: Romaric Bemba. Another hard to fault display from the non-stop
second-row man.
Gamebreaker: The sending off inside 90 seconds of Alan Robinson for what
seemed to be a pretty innocuous offence. This prevented the game from
developing as a contest and kept England on the back foot.
Article by Chris Leak
17 Jul 2005
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