England 73-12 Barbarians: Christian Wade scores hat-trick

Christian Wade scored a hat-trick as an England XV recorded a superb win over Barbarians at Twickenham.

Head coach Stuart Lancaster included 10 players from his 50-man training squad for the World Cup in a 10-try rout.

Marland Yarde, Ed Slater, Jack Clifford, Danny Cipriani and Christian Wade, twice, crossed for England in the first half, with Brad Thorn responding.

Henry Slade, Josh Beaumont, Wade and Cipriani added more, while Thomas Waldrom scored for the Baa-Baas.

It will have been difficult for Lancaster to judge the World Cup potential of his players in this bulldozing of a Barbarians side full of experienced players, but devoid of cohesion.

None of the 10 included in the initial training squad will have damaged their prospects of remaining when the numbers are whittled down to 31 on 31 August, 18 days before England commence the World Cup on home soil.

Luke Cowan-Dickie was particularly impressive. The Exeter forward showed a turn of pace before finding Yarde for the opening try of the game and displayed his offloading ability after the break by picking out Slade for England’s seventh try.

Yarde clipped a clever kick inside to put Wade over, and then supplied the Wasps man again with a looping pass.

Wade has not ruled out the possibility of making a late bid to be in Lancaster’s plans and the 24-year-old enhanced his claim with a performance that included the assist for Cipriani’s try before half-time.

The wing will regret a moment of calamity when he dropped the ball before touching down after sprinting clear, but completed his hat-trick late on.

By that time Slater and Clifford had also crossed.

Cipriani landed all 11 attempts from the tee and the Sale fly-half amassed a 33-point haul.

The Barbarians were captained by New Zealand’s World Cup-winning lock Thorn, who barged over early in the game.

And Thorn’s Leicester team-mate Waldrom snaffled a loose ball one metre from the line to land a second try for the invitational team.