England Under-20s prepare for Under-20 Six Nations campaign with high-scoring win over Cambridge

Saturday’s friendly encounter between Cambridge and England Under-20s proved to be a game of two contrasting halves.

Cambridge had hoped that the showpiece encounter, which served as a warm-up game for the young international players ahead of their Six Nations campaign, would attract a big crowd to Ellgia Fields.

However, the weekend’s frosty conditions meant that the fixture had to be switched to an artificial playing surface at Bedford Athletic, with spectators not permitted.

And the fans missed a high-scoring match as the England youngsters ran out winners by a 59-33 margin.

Much of the damage was done during the opening 40 minutes as England dotted down on five occasions for a 31-5 lead.

Meanwhile, all that Cambridge had to show for their first-half efforts was a try from Jared Cardew on the half hour mark.

However, it was much more of an even contest during the second half as another try from Cardew – along with scores from Archie Vanes, Jack Bartlett and a penalty try – saw Cambridge make a significant impact on the scoreline.

Reflecting on the defeat, Cambridge’s Ben Adams said: “For the first 20 minutes or so we were behind the eight ball a little bit.

“The speed that they brought was hard to keep up with, (but) we finally started doing our jobs so after all that head-start we gave them we came back and played some good rugby.

“There was a couple of tries from our set-piece and a few from our maul.

“It’s nice to see that we’ve scored five tries and that’s the first time we’ve scored five tries this season – it’s nice to get a bonus-point amount of tries.”

Interim head coach Anthony Allen also felt that his side were made to pay for a slow start.

“If you look across the whole game we could have had more of those (moments) but we just fell off in a few areas, which was disappointing,” he told the Jacko Podcast.

“At key times we could have made more line breaks and we were just a little flat at times.

“We’ve got things to work on but there are some positives to take.

“They clearly came out to play. They haven’t been together for too long so they were getting some combinations working and you could clearly see that.

“They were fast and dangerous – especially on a surface like this that we’re not really used to.

“It was a really good challenge defensively, certainly in that first 20 minutes when they got away two early scores.

“We eventually wrestled back some momentum but it was some crucial errors that cost us in that first half.”

Cambridge will now switch their focus back to the RFU Championship on Saturday (18 January) when they play host to London Scottish.

Second-from-bottom Cambridge are four points behind their ninth-placed visitors.