Saturday 31 January 2015 06:22, UK
England Saxons coach Jon Callard leapt to the defence of Sam Burgess after his representative union debut against the Ireland Wolfhounds in Cork.
The Bath centre made a series of errors in the Saxons' 18-9 win, doing little for his outside chances of playing in the Six Nations this year, but Callard was pleased with his work, particularly what he did without ball in hand.
The 26-year-old was making only his eighth senior appearance in the 15-man game after a high-profile switch from rugby league.
"Sam has had a great week for us, but unfortunately didn't have the ball on the front foot and probably tried to force a couple of things," Callard said.
"He made a lovely little break and offload, which is what his strength is, but we just couldn't get him into the game at set-piece.
"But he was influential on the shape we had in attack. He pulled defenders out with his running, which created space out wide.
"What he did with the ball in hand wasn't there to see, but he did a lot of good stuff without the ball.
"Sam has only had a session and a half in the England set up, but he created space for others and that's what the game is about."
Callard watched as tries from Henry Slade and Christian Wade saw his side home, and he saw plenty of positives for the future despite some struggles scrummaging.
"(England head coach) Stuart Lancaster talked to the squad on Monday and told the players he expected them to win and expected them to be hurting that they've been left out of the senior squad," Callard added.
"I'm very proud of our attacking rugby. The players gave everything against a good Irish side.
"We scored two tries and nilled them on tries, which was very impressive. The players deserve all the credit.
"We fell too many times on the scrum, but we showed great composure and discipline outside of that."
