Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Outstanding James Simpson-Daniel try vs the Barbarians in 2002

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Outstanding James Simpson-Daniel try vs the Barbarians in 2002

Back in May of 2002, almost six years ago to the day, 62,000 fans at Twickenham played witness to one of the best individual tries ever seen on the ground, scored by a young Gloucester flyer by the name of James Simpson-Daniel.

Simpson-Daniel, only 19 at the time, contributed to England's highly impressive 53-29 victory over a Barbarians team that included the likes of Christian Cullen, Thomas Castaignede, and the legendary Jonah Lomu.

The superbly inventive solo try scored in the 35th minute by Simpson-Daniel had the world's most famous rugby player looking somewhat stunned after a man half his size and with no international experience had the audacity to take him on on the outside.

Percy Montgomery too was totally bemused with a delightful and deliberate juggle of the ball by Simpson-Daniel, before watching him step and skin Lomu down the wing and squeeze over in the corner, despite Cullen's covering challenge.

The Twickenham crowd, Clive Woodward, and every neutral rugby fan around the world stood as one to applaud a fantastic moment from a young man who showed so much promise at such a tender age.

This is an excellent 40-metre solo try that needed to be added to our archives, and one that will always be remembered for that cheeky dummy and the electric out-sprinting of Lomu.

Absolutely top quality, loved the pass to himself, pure class!

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 4:54 pm
average at best

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 5:49 pm
anyone who takes on Lomu and Cullen and comes of best is far from average...

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 6:38 pm
wow. That is...wow. Good ol' anonymous up there thinks he's all high and mighty. "average at best" my ass.

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 6:46 pm
Mad skills

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 7:05 pm
Haha Lomu got shown up twice in that game, the rapid number 7 who had a very short international career dummied and burnt him off too.

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 7:07 pm
consider the magnitude of the situation: 19 yr old beating percy, jonah, and cullen. it's tough to say any try in that situation is average at best, particularly when he dummies percy out of his shorts (audacious), burns by jonah (gas), and even thinks to challenge cullen to a race to the corner (straight ballsy).

By sacricketer, at May 13, 2008 7:16 pm
Can someone get the clip when Simpson Daniel tries to tackle Lomu in 2003 and Lomu's fend off is so powerful it knocks simpson daniel back into another England player and knocks him over. Does anyone remember this? REQUEST

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 7:30 pm
quality try, i think hes got a shot at getting into england atm. ^^ post it in the request section.

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 8:21 pm
something tells me when people are talking in 20 years about the greatest wingers to play the game, the name Jonah Lomu is likely to come up a bit more than James Simpson Daniel. still let him have his moment in the sun, it is a very good try.

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 9:26 pm
JSD us awesome!

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 10:09 pm
absoloutely brilliant solo try.

such a shame he's been hit with so much bad luck, he should be int eh england side, he's like austin healy can play everywhere and create try's out of nothing.

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 10:21 pm
"something tells me when people are talking in 20 years about the greatest wingers to play the game, the name Jonah Lomu is likely to come up a bit more than James Simpson Daniel. still let him have his moment in the sun, it is a very good try."

yes, but mainly because his international career has been blighted by misfortune.

According to you, Lomu was a great, so why demean the try.

Either he is, in which case great try. Or he isn't, in which case it's just a good try, you can't really have it both ways.

:)

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 10:25 pm
good to see phil christophers in an england jersey. he is one of the stand out players in the french league and definitely deserves a comeback in the english side...great try by sinbad btw...

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 10:31 pm
Jesus why are people taking away from a class try and JSD ?

Brilliant dummy pass ! did Spencer do something similar when in the GP ?

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 11:05 pm
Pure class!

It's sad how bitter some people are. Can't you just enjoy it for what it is regardless of what nation that player plays for?

By Anonymous, at May 13, 2008 11:21 pm
Has to be my favourite try of all time, amazing.

By ciano, at May 14, 2008 12:01 am
Next time they played, Jonah's in an All Black jersey and hands him off big time....pay back!!

By ciano, at May 14, 2008 12:03 am
Lomu was only good because he was big on the wing. Is being big a skill? No, but Simpson-Daniel has mad skillz.

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 1:27 am
"Haha Lomu got shown up twice in that game, the rapid number 7 who had a very short international career dummied and burnt him off too."
that was james forrester and he was playing 8 at the time. his career has been blighted by injury to. also why are their so many comments saying that he was flatenned next week? England won a great game

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 1:34 am
"Haha Lomu got shown up twice in that game, the rapid number 7 who had a very short international career dummied and burnt him off too."
that was james forrester and he was playing 8 at the time. his career has been blighted by injury to. also why are their so many comments saying that he was flatened next year? England won a great game

wrote it wrong

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 1:36 am
Lomu was only good because he was big on the wing. Is being big a skill? No, but Simpson-Daniel has mad skillz.

I think you'll find Lomu had some pretty intense skills.....

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 2:17 am
rd should please deal with these anonymous postings

but anyway, that was a great try

By Don, at May 14, 2008 6:47 am
Love that dummy. Saw Justin Marshall do it for the Crusaders once too, except he was running more laterally. Works like a charm if you pull it off properly.

Lomu was big, unfit then apparently, and sluggish on defense, but f*&k me this is a good try for the dummy, the speed, and step, and most importantly, for having the confidence to go for it!

Then again, if I saw Lomu up in front of me, I'd also do my best to run around him. I think we all know how that would end though :P

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 10:09 am
Is that guy still around? That was a great try!! BTW Lomu did look abit slow there.. but maybe is because of simpson-daniel's speed...

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 3:02 pm
Great try. Spencer did something very similar for the Baa Baas against England a few years ago. In that match the Barbarians won by a fair margin. Shame JSD isn't in England squad as he needs an operation. Would love to have seen him playing in New Zealand.

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 3:07 pm
Stupid commentators!

I hate Barnes and the other guy on one of the great tries of individual brilliance:

"there could be something special here.......there is (dulcet tones as usual)"

An annoying. Ruined a lot of the world cup for me.

Great try by JSD. Shame Lomu played for so many years unfit. He could have doubled his scores for NZ.

JSD's day will come...I think...

By thedannyclayton, at May 14, 2008 3:25 pm
Typical England, you have to go back to 2002 to see a try that is seen every week in club, NPC and Super 4 every week. Any back with any sort of skill does this sort of move week in week out, jeez I do it every week at Touch Rugby and still guys fall for it. Spencer invented the pass to yourself, and to be fair he did go round Lomu, s did a few in his time, but there would be few that would have any one with a hyphened name in there side in front of Jonah. Did he go to a private school by any chance!!

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 5:14 pm
^^^ Typical casual fan from the Southern hemisphere.

Unaware of the rugby brilliance that is JSD.

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 6:45 pm
I couldn't agree more with thedannyclayton! That try should have had hooting and hollering by the commentators, instead it was the same reactions we heard in the WC over and over again, on some of the best pieces of rugby.

Highly frustrating as a fan. Get excited commentators you twits!

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 7:45 pm
while i may not agree with him all the time i'd rather hear Barnes commentating than some halfwit like murray mexted. he actually knows something about the game. the bloke from Northern Ireland who does the commentary on setanta and sky is the best commentator ever. not to take away from this very fine try but Simpson-Daniel is by no means brilliant.

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 9:31 pm
Yawn... Anonymous comments just stand no ground with me personally.

And how could you call an ex All Black number eight a halfwit who doesn't know anything about the game?

By Anonymous, at May 14, 2008 9:49 pm
I think you'll find Lomu had some pretty intense skills.....

couldn't pass, couldn't kick, poor positioning a lot of the time.

he was good because he was big, put another big guy on the wing and Lomu goes nowhere

By Anonymous, at May 15, 2008 12:19 am
The dummy pass was as impressive as O'Driscolls from a couple years ago, except the stage was greater and it amounted to a try being scored.

By Anonymous, at May 15, 2008 4:29 am
defending murray mexted? hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

have you listened to the man? people who agree with anything that man has to say's opinion holds no ground with me. not only is he a joke as a commentator (see his wikipedia page) but he is worse than the most myopic of All Black supporters. the most patronising, uninformed man currently commentating on rugby in the world today

By Anonymous, at May 15, 2008 12:16 pm
Sounds like he said something about your team and you haven't quite got over it yet hey...

And well done for finally using a name, swingin' mickey. :)

By Anonymous, at May 15, 2008 3:07 pm
agree with swingin' Mickey here..Mexted is a boderline simpleton, he is the reason that all Kiwi's (unfairly) get tarred with the 'one eyed' brush....just watch the dvd of the 02 England win in NZ for proof-so bias it defies belief, you can hear the sound of his teeth grinding together every time JW adds 3pts despite the gale force wind!!!

By Anonymous, at May 16, 2008 3:02 pm
People that think thats class clearly dont watch enough rugby outside the england premiership stuff, which is made up of ex southern hemisphere lads cashing up mainly. One bit of skill and everyone rates him, still has a double barreled name, and still wouldnt make a NZ E side!

By Anonymous, at May 17, 2008 11:47 pm
"the rapid number 7 who had a very short international career dummied and burnt him off too."

the open side flanker is James Forrester. He also plays for Gloucester , although he's been injured for about a year and a half.

By Anonymous, at September 21, 2008 12:23 pm
how can so many people be knocking that try? 'one bit of skill and everyones rating him' - its not one bit of skill. people don;'t think he's class because they don't see enough rugby outside the english premiership, they think he's class cus they see the premiership and him week in week out (when he's not injured) showing that he is class! saying he isn't class is more about your ignorance of him than our ignorance of world rugby! jsd along with most other premiership players would stand up in any league in the world! the fact that not many play abroad is more to do with the appeal of the premiership rather than their lack of ability, as highlighted by the masses of southern hemisphere players having a go. stop being so biased and accept its a good bit of skill by a class player!

By Anonymous, at October 03, 2008 3:34 pm
The openside that was mentioned was James Forrester, he usually played number 8, and was consistently one of the best in the GP for many seasons. Unfortunately just before the World Cup, where he was widely considered to be selected, he suffered a horrible knee injury which ruled him out for 18 months, and unfortunately turned out to be career ending after his knee didnt hold up during his comeback, and England and Gloucester lost a tremendous talent.

By Anonymous, at October 22, 2008 10:48 pm
if lomu had been in the same line as percy and the other centre he would have tackled him.anyway superb try

By Anonymous, at November 01, 2008 12:35 am
he did that again against NZ didnt he...and then england scored off the next phase...trademark?
coxy

By coxy, at November 13, 2008 10:12 pm