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England Saxons aim for 5th Churchill Cup title

Article Published: Tuesday 15 June 2010

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The England Saxons will play in their fifth Churchill Cup final where they will be looking to lift the trophy for a fourth time since the competition began in 2003.

Having overcome Russia and hosts USA in two tiring pool matches the Saxons will face Canada on Saturday (kick off 7.45pm BST), who reached their first ever final by beating France A.

Last year the Saxons suffered disappointment when they missed out on their fourth successive cup after losing 22-49 to Ireland A.

And as the players arrive in New Jersey to get their preparations underway Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby) knows his side need to improve their game if they are going be 2010 champions.

"Saturday will be tough and we need to lift our performance considerably if we are going to mount a challenge against Canada and get our hands on that trophy." said Abendanon.

However, after putting in a man of the match performance in Sunday's 32-9 victory over USA the full back is convinced that if the Saxons stick to the game plan they will come out on top.

"We had a game plan in place against USA with Anthony (Allen, Leicester Tigers) and Brad (Barritt, Saracens) in the centre." added Abendanon.

"We thought we could get some go forward from them and earn the right to go wide but unfortunately we weren't holding the ball through enough phases to get that continuity going, which is why most of our points came from counterattacking.

"Credit to USA though, they fronted up big time in defence to put us off our game. It was quite a frantic game, at times we seemed impatient to do things. But if we can nail that for this weekend against Canada, we will hopefully be fine."

The England Saxons squad to face Canada in Saturday's 2010 Churchill Cup final will be announced on Wednesday.

England Saxons 2010 Churchill Cup fixtures and results:

Wednesday, June 9
Infinity Park, Glendale, Colorado
England Saxons 49-17 Russia

Sunday, June 13
Infinity Park, Glendale, Colorado
USA 9-32 England Saxons

Saturday, June 19
Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey
Finals Day triple header

England Saxons v Canada (kick off 2.45pm, local time)

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