England overcome lightning delay to beat US

United States (0) 5

Klein tries:

England (19) 40

In a game in Washington that was delayed by almost two hours due to lightning strikes, England dominated.

Play in the one-off Test will begin at 18:05 local time (23:05 BST) on Saturday, with kick-off in the US capital delayed by an hour.

When more bad weather became known, England had a 14-0 lead in the 29th minute before Scottish referee Sam Grove-White was forced to play a further 40 minutes without the players.

On both occasions, fans in Washington’s 20, 000-capacity Audi Field were instructed to “exit the seating bowl” and “seek shelter in the concourse” via a video message posted to the stadium’s video screen.

England finished their tour of Argentina and the United States with a perfect three-win record despite the weather delays.

Luke Northmore crossed under the posts seven minutes after Steve Borthwick’s side had a strong start to the match, leading 2-0 through Curtis Langdon’s maul in the eleventh minute. Chris Hilsenbeck and the USA were the only ones who scored both tries and Chris Hilsenbeck was the sinner.

After TMO reviews, Alex Dombrandt and debutant Joe Carpenter scored tries, before Cadan Murley deservedly added England’s third score with a cross on the left wing just before half-time.

In the 62nd minute, Harry Randall scored a brilliant dummy while Jack van Poortvliet went over immediately following the restart.

Shilo Klein crashed over in the corner just in time to complete England’s sixth try, which was Gabriel Oghre’s only attempt to stop.

In addition to Sale full-back Carpenter, Bath center Max Ojomoh, Gloucester second-row Arthur Clark, and Gloucester fly-half Charlie Atkinson all made their English debuts.

After serving a two-game suspension, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso also made a second-match appearance for Borthwick, who made 12 changes to the England side that beat the Pumas in San Juan.

Due to bad weather, a number of sporting events in the US this summer have been postponed.

When the United States hosts the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups, Washington is one of 27 cities that has expressed interest in hosting games, including Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

In Orlando, Florida, lightning strikes nearly delayed Benfica’s game with Auckland City by almost two and a half hours last month during the Fifa Club World Cup.

Due to lightning, Benfica’s match against Chelsea in Charlotte, North Carolina, was delayed by one hour, 53 minutes.

Klein, Iscaro, Kofe, Helu, Poidevin, Alikhan, Smith, and Futi are the replacements.

England: Carpenter, Feyi-Waboso, Northmore, Ojomoh, Murley, Ford (c), Van Poortvliet, Rood, Langdon, Opoku-Fordjour, Coles, Clark, Cunningham-South, Pepper, Dombrant, and Coles.