USA 5-40 England: Lightning in Washington DC affects dominant win

England cruised past the United States in a match in Washington that had almost two hours of delays because of lightning strikes in the area.

Kick-off in the US capital was held up by an hour, with play in the one-off Test starting at 18:05 local time (23:05 BST) on Saturday.

England led 14-0 in the 29th minute when more reports of bad weather forced Scottish referee Sam Grove-White to take the players off the field for a further 40 minutes.

On both occasions, supporters inside the 20,000-capacity Audi Field in Washington were told to “exit the seating bowl” and “seek shelter in the concourse” on a message on the stadium’s video screen.

Despite the weather delays, England still managed to shine, scoring six tries to end their tour of Argentina and the United States with a perfect three-win record.

Steve Borthwick’s side started the match well, taking the lead through Curtis Langdon after a maul in the 11th minute, while Luke Northmore crossed under the posts seven minutes later. Both tries came with the USA down to 14 players with Chris Hilsenbeck in the sin-bin.

Alex Dombrandt and debutant Joe Carpenter then had tries chalked off after TMO reviews, before Cadan Murley deservedly added England’s third score by crossing on the left wing on the stroke of half-time.

Straight after the restart, Jack van Poortvliet went over while replacement Harry Randall produced a brilliant dummy to score in the 62nd minute.

Gabriel Oghre finished England’s sixth try, but the Red Roses were unable to completely shut the US out, as Shilo Klein crashed over in the corner right at the end.

Alongside Sale full-back Carpenter, Bath centre Max Ojomoh, Gloucester second row Arthur Clark and Gloucester fly-half Charlie Atkinson all made their England debuts.

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso also returned after his two-match ban as Borthwick made 12 changes to the England side who beat the Pumas in San Juan in their second Test.

Earlier at Audi Field, the USA’s women survived a late charge to beat Fiji 31-24.