England

Ireland A destroyed the England Saxons unbeaten run at the Churchill Cup with a comprehensive 49-22 win over in the final of the second tier competition in Denver on Sunday evening.

The Saxons were looking for their third successive Churchill Cup victory but ultimately ended up suffering a six try defeat against a highly charged and physical Ireland A pack.

England scored two second half tries with Ben Woods and Tom Varndell going over, the rest of their points were from the boot of Stephen Myler, scoring three penalties.

Ireland A in contrast ran in two first half tries from Deven Toner and Isaac Boss and four second half tries from Sean Cronin, Felix Jones, Johne Murphy and John Muldoon with Jonathan Sexton adding a penalty, three conversions and a drop goal and Fergus McFadden sharing the kicking duties slotted two further conversions and a penalty.

England Saxons Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said: "We made some replacements in the second half because in the first we were losing the physical battle.

"Ireland A deserved to win they came at us and were a very though opposition. We have to go away and look at ourselves. At this level there are no second chances. Our desire was there but our execution wasn't."

England Saxons captain Phil Dowson said, "I'm shell shocked. We took a pasting and there are no excuses. It wasn't a pretty sight at all.

"We just didn't look after our ball whereas in contrast Ireland A did. We didn't work hard enough at the breakdown and we have learned some harsh lessons today.

"We have to go away and look at the videos but we just were not good enough today."

Saxons' built an early 6-0 lead through penalties one for Ireland A being offside and then again minutes later for a knock on.

But, it didn't last long with Sexton slotting an easy three points to make the scores 6-3.

Toner's try for Ireland A came from England being penalised for using feet in the ruck and a five metre scrum saw him power over for them to take a 10-6 lead.

Saxons added a further three points from the boot of Myler to bring them to within a point, 9-10. Another Myler penalty followed which went wide.

In the 25 McFadden made a scorching mid-field break which led to Boss eventually finding the line and Sexton added the extras, 9-17.

Myler added another three points on the half hour after Ireland were penalised at the scrum, 12-17.

A double sin binning for fighting in the 33 saw Saxons' Dan Cole and Ireland A's Chris Henry spend some time out.

And a drop goal by Sexton kept Ireland's scoreboard ticking, 12-20.

On the half time buzzer captain Best was sent to the bin for hands in the ruck and Myler failed to slot the three points from the halfway line leaving the scores at 12-20.

Ireland A came back out on the attack and were rewarded, Cronin slipping through England's defence with McFadden adding the conversion to extend their lead to 27-12.

An attacking England lineout led to Woods' try after receiving an outside pass from Stuart Hooper, Myler failed to convert, 17-27.

In the 55 minute Ireland A were fully in their stride and after testing the Saxons defence Jones and Murphy ran over within five minutes of each other.

Jones at close range from a scrum and Murphy from scooping up a Myler cross field kick, to stretch their score to 17-39.

McFadden slotted over another penalty on 65 to add another two points, 17-42.

Ben Woods was sent to the bin for the remainder of the match and John Muldoon powered over in the 74 after a period of camping on England's line and McFadden added the extras, 17-49.

Varndell scored England Saxons' second try in the dying minutes but Shane Geraghty failed to convert to take the final scores to 22-49.

The Scorers

For Saxons:

Tries: Woods, Varndell
Pen: Myler 4

For Ireland A

Tries: Toner, Boss, Cronin, Jones, Murphy, Muldoon
Pen: Sexton, McFadden
Cons: Sexton 3, McFadden 2
DG: Sexton

Yellow Cards: Cole (England Saxons - 33 minutes), Woods (England Saxons - 73 minutes), Henry (Ireland A - 33 minutes), Best (Ireland A - 40 minutes)

England Saxons: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Dominic Waldouck, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Noah Cato, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Micky Young, 8 Luke Narraway, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Phil Dowson (captain), 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Stuart Hooper, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Rob Webber, 1 David Flatman
Replacements: 16 Joe Ward, 17 Tom Mercey, 18 Dean Schofield, 19 Tom Guest,  20 Joe Simpson, 21 Danny Cipriani, 22 Shane Geraghty

Ireland A: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Denis Hurley, 13 Fergus McFadden, 12 Keith Matthews, 11 Johne Murphy, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Isaac Boss (captain), 8 Chris Henry, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Neil Best, 5 Devon Toner, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Tony Buckley, Sean Cronin, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Dennis Fogarty, 17 Bryan Young, 18 Trevor Hogan, 19 John Muldoon, 20 Simon Geogh, 21 Niall O'Connor, 22 James Downey

Referee: Matt Goddard (Australia)