England blew a 17-point lead against the Barbarians as Tim Visser’s late try completed a dramatic 38-32 victory in Sunday’s international at Twickenham.
Tries from Henry Trinder, Ugo Monye and James Simpson-Daniel had put England in charge before the Barbarians mounted a comeback either side of the interval.
Visser, George Smith and Joe van Niekerk added to the first-half tries from French duo Benoit Baby and Frederic Michalak as the Barbarians took control.
England thought they had escaped with the win with a late try from the Exeter flanker Tom Johnson. However, Visser’s second try, scored with the last play of the game after a piece of Fijian magic from Joe Tekori, sealed the Barbarians’ win.
There was further bad news for England manager Martin Johnson as he ran the rule over a handful of fringe World Cup squad contenders.
Monye limped off with an ankle injury, while Harlequins prop Joe Marler, a contender for the World Cup training squad, was carried off on a stretcher in the second half.
England Saxons coach Stuart Lancaster, standing in for Johnson, said: “Ugo has got a medial collateral ligament strain. He will be assessed in the morning but it doesn’t look too bad, while Matt Banahan has a soft tissue injury.”
“[Joe] Marler has a mild concussion. It wasn’t spinal. That is the protocol to get him off field,” Lancaster said.
The Barbarians squad had a combined total of 539 caps and, as usual in this fixture, they took some time to get going.
England were faster out of the blocks and Gloucester center Trinder gave them the lead after excellent build-up work from Matt Banahan and fly-half Charlie Hodgson. Benoit Baby hit back for the Barbarians before Monye chipped ahead and then snatched the turnover from full-back Nicolas Jeanjean to score the second.
After Charlie Hodgson had landed a penalty, Simpson-Daniel left Ruan Pienaar in his wake to score England’s third.
England finished the half with 14 men after Sale flanker Carl Fearns was sin-binned for killing the ball as the Barbarians’ French fly-half Frederic Michalak drove for the line.
Michalak then picked off a pass from England scrum-half Paul Hodgson and fended off a weak tackle from Charlie Hodgson to score just before the interval.
Visser, the Edinburgh wing, left Simpson-Daniel clutching at thin air as he collected a cross-kick from Michalak and raced clear to score.
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