TJ's England honour

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs flanker Tom Johnson said it was a "massive honour" to captain England during Sunday's 40-12 victory over the Barbarians at Twickenham.

The 30-year-old flanker was given the honour for the final 15 minutes of the friendly clash, this after starting starting skipper Rob Webber and deputy Richard Wigglesworth had been replaced during the contest.

Explaining his role, Johnson - who was marking his first competitive action since injuring knee ligaments during Exeter's Heineken Cup clash at home to Leinster in January - said: "Rob Webber, who has captained the side so brilliantly all week, and Richard Wigglesworth both went off and Stuart [Lancaster] had told me in the week that if they went off I'd be captain.

"It was just massive to captain the England team out there for 15 minutes. I'm quite pleased to be able to say I captained my country against the Barbarians.

"Once Richard and Rob went off the referee came over and said, 'you're the captain now' and I thought, 'yeah, I suppose I am'. It was pretty awesome really.

"When I look back on my career it's going to be something I'm very proud of. I didn't have to make too many tough decisions, except for taking a scrum when we had a penalty. And then we scored from it, so it's always nice when you score from a call."

Skippering England capped a fine day for Johnson, who was joined on the field by club-mate Haydn Thomas who was pulling on the Red Rose jersey for the first time in the non-cap international.

The Chiefs connection, however, was not finished there as Aussie international Dean Mumm was used as second half replacement for the Barbarians, whilst helping to oversee England from the sidelines was head coach Rob Baxter.

Gloucester's Freddie Burns scored 20 points for England as tries from three debutants secured their win. Burns's try came inside a minute as England dominated in their final match before a summer tour of South America.

Debut tries from Marland Yarde, Christian Wade and Kyle Eastmond were complemented by another from Billy Twelvetrees.