Help for Heroes Match Hits Home
The Help for Heroes campaign has broken trough the £1M mark thanks to the 52,000 who attended the Twickenham extravaganza on Saturday.
INTERNATIONAL SELECT XV 10 HELP FOR HEROES XV 29
Former Wales internationals Ieuan Evans, Scott Gibbs, Darren Morris, Gareth Llewellyn, Dafydd Jones and Colin Charvis all helped raise over £1.1 million for the charity which supports the rehabilitation of injured service personnel on Saturday afternoon. In front of a 52,000 strong crowd, the six Wales stars played their part at Twickenham as they turned out for an International XV against a Help the Heroes side
Youngsters Rhys Priestland, Kristian Phillips and Dafydd Hewitt will also have learnt a great deal from the experience of playing alongside and against some of the game’s more famous faces.
Evans and Gibbs managed and captained the International XV respectively, with the latter stepping back on to the field of play for the first time since announcing his retirement four-and-a-half years ago.
Although Help for Heroes ran out 29-10 winners, it was a Welsh connection at the heart of the first score of the afternoon, with Gibbs providing a telling midfield break before supplying a scoring pass to Phillips on the opposition 10-metre lineafter eight minutes.
A Richard Hill try, together with a conversion and a penalty from Saracens’ outside-half Alex Goode, pushed Help for Heroes into a 10-5 lead, before a close-range score from Bath prop Nathan Catt stretched their advantage to 10 points on the stroke of half-time.
Gibbs’ men struck back through a Kenny Logan try five minutes after the break, with Priestland hitting the post with his conversion attempt from the left-hand touchline.
Former England centre Will Greenwood revived memories of his glory days by crossing for the Help for Heroes XV’s third try of the day with 15 minutes left to play, before Wasps scrum-half Joe Simpson settled matters with the final move of the game.
Recently-retired Lions hero Lawrence Dallaglio then showed another string to his bow by adding the conversion, albeit from directly underneath the posts.
Help for Heroes XV: M Roberts (Army); M Odejobi (Wasps), W Greenwood (England), J Robinson (England), D Luger (England), A Goode (Saracens), J Simpson (Wasps); N Catt (Bath), M Regan (Bristol, England), T Mercey (Saracens), R Sugden (Army), S Hobson (Bath), M Cornish (Royal Air Force), R Hill (England), L Dallaglio (England, capt)
Replacements: M Johnson (England), T O'Keeffe (Royal Marines), R Matthews (Royal Air Force), P Volley (London Scottish), M Offiah (Wigan Warriors, Great Britain RL), D Pascoe (Royal Navy), D Shabbo (London Irish), G Leonard (Royal Air Force), H Barratt (London Wasps)
International XV: J Bishop (Doncaster, Ireland); K Phillips (Ospreys), A Flammia (Royal Air Force), S Gibbs (Wales, capt), K Logan (Wasps, Scotland); R Priestland (Scarlets), G Easterby (Otley, Ireland); D Hilton (Bristol), G Bulloch (West of Scotland, Scotland), D Morris (Worcester, Wales), G Llewellyn (Wales), H Parr (Royal Air Force), D Jones (Scarlets, Wales), C Charvis (Newport Gwent Dragons, Wales), J Kava (Army)
Replacements: S Byrne (Saracens, Ireland), S Ruwers (Worcester), M Cormack (Royal Navy), M Lee (Army), Z Feaunati (Bath, Samoa), M Young (Newcastle), M Rhodes (Royal Marines), D Hewitt (Cardiff Blues), M Stephenson (Bath, England)
