The AIS rugby league team has overcome a determined England Academy side 22-20 in a bruising encounter at the Leigh Sports Village.

The Academy side, captained by Bradford Bulls forward John Bateman, ran in four tries in a stellar performance but couldn’t find the killer touch late in the game against a determined AIS line-up.

The AIS opened the scoring on five minutes after Jarrod Watson was on the end of a perfectly placed cross-field kick to dive over with scrumhalf Doug Hewitt adding the extras to give the tourists an early six point lead.

James Duckworth then leveled the scores for the English when he caught a cross-field kick from Williams on the last tackle to make it 6-4 and soon after centre Mark Percival snuck his way into the corner to give his side an 8-6 lead.

The second half began poorly for England when the tourists got back in front after Alexi Falepaini was put through to score underneath the posts.

England looked to have responded almost immediately when captain Bateman went in under the posts only to see his try disallowed for a forward pass.

They were made to pay when AIS captain Rhett Webster slid in down the left hand touchline after some inventive play to keep the ball alive saw the Australians go from one side of the pitch to the other.

With just over ten minutes remaining, Bateman collected the ball 30 meters out, shrugged off the first tackler to create an opening and the big forward then showed a blistering turn of pace to beat the cover defence and dive in on the left hand touch line. Williams slotted the extras to bring the scores to 16-14.

In a thrilling final few minutes, Addo Waianga scored for the AIS before England’s Greg Wilde hit back straight away. It proved to be the last throw of the dice for England as the game finished 22-20.

“We’re obviously disappointed to get beat but I was very pleased with the performance that the lads put in today and there are lots of positives for us to take from the game,” England Academy coach Dave Elliott said.

“In the end their experience told and they held on for the win but we know where we went wrong and what we could have done better so now we’ll go away and work on that and look to improve going forward.”

It was the second win in a week for the AIS following their 36-0 victory over Wales mid-week. They now travel to York for a clash against the Community Lions at Heworth ARLFC on Wednesday.

Australian Institute of Sport:
Tries: Jarrad Watson, Aleki Falepaini, Rhett Webster, Addo Waianga
Goals: Doug Hewitt 3

England Academy:
Tries: James Duckworth, Mark Percival, John Bateman, Greg Wilde
Goals: George Williams 2

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