England ransacked by Lomu's task force

8.00 am - By CHRIS HEWETT

England XV 29 Barbarians 43

TWICKENHAM - Not so very long ago, the rugby-loving inhabitants of Barbaria were a roguish bunch who could run like the wind, sell dummies by the dozen and drink like fishes, usually while serenading their opponents with a few good-natured choruses of Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

Then came professionalism, and mean-mindedness of the pay-for-play ethic. The end-of-season showpiece at Twickenham this morning (NZ time) provided conclusive proof that oval-ball Corinthianism is dead and buried. The Barbarians of the 21st Century have a streak of purest Attila about them.

From the point of view of the England players, all of whom were scheduled to fly to Canada today for the three-Test tour of North America, it would have been less exhausting ­ and probably a whole lot safer ­ to have spent their Sunday afternoon in a Roman galley. The youngsters in Kyran Bracken's side scarcely knew what hit them in the opening half-hour, when Jonah Lomu and his colleagues scored virtually at will. If Lomu had never been born, Roald Dahl would have invented him.

When England, shorn of their Lions contingent, did get close enough to the Barbarians to start a fight, they generally finished a distant second. Trevor Woodman, the Gloucester prop, will not forget Braam van Straaten in a hurry, thanks to the Tysonesque power of the South African's retaliatory punch shortly before the interval. Later in the game, another Kingsholm forward, Andy Hazell, caught a big one from Angus Gardiner as a scrum disintegrated into an interesting little free-for-all. Exhibition stuff it was not.

Under the circumstances, Bracken's boys did well to grow up as quickly as they did. Having reached the break nine points adrift after recovering from an early 24-8 deficit, they smartened up their act still further and worked their way to within a score as the clock ticked past the 70-minute mark. Sadly for them, the Big Bloke was still galloping around the paddock. Lomu's trademark rumble up the left took three England defenders out of commission, and, when the Baa-Baas opted for a straight spin to the far side of the field, the Springbok prop Adrian Garvey lumbered over the wrap-up try.

The physicality of the contest blew a hole the size of Asia in the England ranks, and left four players ­ the Saracens centre Ben Johnston, the Bath hooker Mark Regan, and two highly capable Wasps, the centre Josh Lewsey and the lock Simon Shaw ­ in considerable distress. None of them were ruled out of the North America jaunt, but Lewsey's damaged ribs and Johnston's twanged hamstring were clear causes for concern. In addition, the bloodshed measured nine on the Peckinpah Scale. Quite why the England management craved this game on the eve of a summer tour will forever remain a mystery.

Of the new boys, Leon Lloyd looked stiletto-sharp in midfield and Michael Stephenson, the Iain Balshaw lookalike from Newcastle, had his moments on the left wing. Up front, Julian White went toe to toe with the formidable Garry Pagel and was still standing at the end, while the aggressive Alex Sanderson worked overtime in the back row. But there were worrying outbreaks of anonymity, too: Lewsey, hardly a career second five-eighths, struggled to fathom the Wallaby- tinged brilliance of Pat Howard, while the big items in the second row ­ Shaw, Steve Borthwick and, latterly, Ben Kay ­ barely registered.

There again, these Baa-Baas were not at Twickenham for a day out. Points mean prizes in this day and age, and the financial bonus riding on a clean sweep of Wales, Scotland and England was enough to ensure buckets of sweat and a mountain of muscle. Four of the invitation squad ­ Pagel, Ian Jones, Jeremy Guscott and the marvellous Gary Teichmann ­ had the additional motivation of making their final appearances on the professional stage, and all of them contributed handsomely. Guscott, who had not laced up a pair of boots for six months or more, entered the fray rather earlier than he would have liked, as a 13th minute blood replacement for Jason Little. Within three minutes, he had Rolls-Royced his way onto the scoresheet by latching onto Howard's clever midfield chip.

When Lomu ran clean through Paul Sampson from a quick line-out, the Baa-Baas were 16 points clear and very nearly out of sight. But Sampson made instant amends by capitalising on Lloyd's clean break past the lumbering Craig Dowd, and England then went try for try with the visitors until Garvey drew a line under proceedings two minutes into injury time.

Stephenson cancelled out Pat Lam's 55th-minute try with a twinkle-toed scamper that seriously embarrassed Geordan Murphy, the Irish full-back. Ten minutes later, Johnston ran straight and true to the right corner to minimise the damage caused by Teichmann's close-range finish.

Entertaining? Yes, very. But the fact that several Red Rose foot soldiers sank to the turf in exhaustion at the final whistle suggests that next weekend's Test in Toronto against the up-and-at-'em Canadians will be no vicarage tea party. Barbarian fixtures, once the very essence of "After you, Claude" civility, can no longer be counted an easy option.

Barbarians:

Tries Howard, Vidiri, Guscott, Lomu, Lam, Teichmann, Garvey; Conversions Van Straaten 4.

England XV:

Tries Sampson 2, Stephenson, Johnston; Conversions Walder 3; Penalty Walder.

Barbarians:

G Murphy (Leicester and Ireland); J Vidiri (Auckland and New Zealand), J Little (Bristol and Australia), P Howard (Leicester and Australia), J Lomu (Wellington and New Zealand); B Van Straaten (W Province and South Africa), A Gomarsall (Gloucester and England); G Pagel (Northampton and South Africa), N Drotske (Blue Bulls and South Africa), C Dowd (Auckland and New Zealand), R Brooke (Auckland and New Zealand), I Jones (Gloucester and New Zealand), P Lam (Newcastle and Western Samoa), J Kronfeld (Leicester and New Zealand), G Teichmann (Newport and South Africa, capt). Replacements: A Garvey (Newport and South Africa) for Pagel, 50; R Cockerill (Leicester and England) for Drotske, 50; P Carbonneau (Pau and France) for Gomarsall, 62; F Lombard (Blue Bulls) for Vidiri, 62; J Guscott (Bath and England) for Little, 66; T Bowman (New South Wales and Australia) for Brooke, 66; A Gardiner (Bath) for Lam, 76; J Little for Murphy, 74.

England XV:

T Stimpson (Leicester); P Sampson (Wasps), L Lloyd (Leicester), J Lewsey (Wasps) M Stephenson (Newcastle); D Walder (Newcastle), K Bracken (Saracens, capt); T Woodman (Gloucester), M Regan (Bath) J White (Saracens), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), A Sanderson (Sale), A Hazell (Gloucester), J Worsley (Wasps). Replacements: D West (Leicester) for Regan 28; B Johnston (Saracens) for Lewsey 37; M Corry (Leicester) for Hazell H-T; B Kay (Leicester) for Borthwick 48; G Rowntree (Leicester) for Woodman, 51; A King (Wasps) for Stimpson 58; S Borthwick for Shaw, 59; A Hazell for Sanderson. 70; T Stimpson for Johnston, 76.

Referee: C Thomas (Wales).

- INDEPENDENT