England
Stuart Lancaster hails backline versatility
Tom Hamilton at Twickenham
May 31, 2015
Danny Cipriani runs for England against the Barbarians
Danny Cipriani runs for England against the Barbarians© (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

England coach Stuart Lancaster praised his team's performance in the wake of their record-breaking win over the Barbarians and was impressed by Danny Cipriani's showing.

England crossed for 10 tries in the course of their 73-12 win over the Baabaas with Cipriani slotting 11 from 11 off the tee. He also crossed for a brace of tries bringing up a total of 32 points in the process and his showing impressed Lancaster.

"He was good," Lancaster said. "He was helped by good players either side of him. I thought Lee Dickson was excellent and Sladey at 12 and Elliot at 13 are both exciting players. They all understood the shape and organisation in attack we were trying to create and he's a good enough player to apply that. To kick 11 out of 11 was impressive as well."

Cipriani also slotted in at fullback in the second-half when Shane Geraghty came in for Mathew Tait and his versatility could be key when Lancaster names his final 31-man squad for the World Cup.

"He has played a lot at fullback four or five years ago and it's certainly something we'd consider further down the line when we look at the 31. It's pretty competitive position fly-half as is fullback. Henry Slade can play 10, 12, 13 and Elliot Daly can play 13 and 15 so it is good to have the versatility."

While Cipriani collected the official Man of the Match award it was tight-head Kieran Brookes who caught Lancaster's eye in the pack.

"He for me was the standout forward. He's just going to get better and better. Wig's [Graham Rowntree] is a great technical scrummaging coach and I think obviously while everyone gets three weeks off he might get three days and we'll be working hard on getting him in the right condition because I thought his ability to play there for 60 minutes in that intensity and speed was excellent.

"He was definitely a contributor in two of the tries in the first-half and he's a phenomenal scrummager. If you can build that ball-handling ability he's got and his scrummaging power alongside his fitness and conditioning then I think he's a huge prospect for us. It's going to make that tight-head position very competitive as Dan Cole and Davey Wilson are good players."

The win marked the end of England's 2014-15 campaign and though the Barbarians were far from their best, Lancaster was pleased with what he saw on Sunday.

"We're delighted with the scoreline. We were confident in the preparation we put in during the week and we saw the way the Barbarians played against Ireland and the foundation of our game was ultimately built on organised defence, commitment, work-rate and energy.

"Once we had that, with the players we had, we gave them a simple attacking framework. People might turn around and say the Barbarians didn't play well but equally I thought we played some excellent rugby."

© Tom Hamilton at Twickenham

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