TAVISTOCK-born Luke Northmore scored one of the six tries as England RFU put the United States to the sword in their latest international friendly on Saturday, July 19.

He crossed the white line with 18 minutes on the clock, shortly after Northampton Saints front-row Curtis Langdon had got the ball rolling for Steve Borthwick’s men.

As was a regular feature across the pond in the recent Club World Cup football, the players then had to be removed from the field for 45 minutes due to nearby lightning strikes.

Play finally resumed and four more England tries followed, one of which was scored by Leicester Tigers’ young scrum-half Jack Van Poortvliet. Seven days prior, it was the number nine who won the game for England at the death against Argentina in San Juan.

Talking of that narrow clash with Los Pumas and Northmore made his England debut in that one, playing 71 minutes before Bath’s Sam Underhill re-entered the fray to take his place. The 28-year-old got 63 minutes under his belt this time around and he is of course one of the beneficiaries of the ongoing British and Irish Lions tour in Australia.

Ironically, Northmore joined up with the squad to fill the void left behind by injured Henry Slade, a fellow Devonian.

Northmore was with Tavistock RFC as a teenager before going on to Cardiff Met University. He signed for Harlequins in 2019 and remains a part of the Premiership set-up at The Stoop.

The centre has previously toured with England and has even been included in Six Nations squads but has had to bide his time when it comes to getting on the pitch.

His hard work has finally paid off with the result, these two England outings, one in Argentina and the other at Audi Field in Washington D.C.