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The Barbarians ran in five tries as they defeated England 33-26 in an enertaining match at a sun-soaked Twickenham.

The invitation side led 14-5 at half-time thanks to first-half touch downs from Iain Balshaw and Chris Jack.

Wing Ben Foden replied with a try for England in the 32nd minute but the Barbarians looked like they would run away with the game with further tries from Balshaw, Rocky Elsom and Gordon D'Arcy in a 10-minute spell after the break.

Jordan Turner-Hall, Matt Banahan and Tom May scored late tries on their debuts to bring England back into contention.

An error-strewn England performance was in stark contrast to the Barbarians, who thrilled the Twickenham crowd.

There were few plus points for England manager Martin Johnson, who saw his side make errors in key positions and failing to hold on to possession. However, four of the players to whom he handed starts repaid him with tries.

The first half belonged to the visitors and after an early miss by Andy Goode, from a very kickable penalty, two ex-England players combined for the games' first score. Josh Lewsey, playing in his penultimate match before his retirement, grubbered through for a questionably-offside Balshaw to stride home relatively unchallenged.

The Baa-Baas second try was set up by another retiring England stalwart. Martin Corry, who captained his country 17 times, showed no mercy as he cut a line through the porous England midfield. The ball was then worked to his second row colleague Jack to make it two tries to nil. The Barbarians class throughout the side was showing as Ben Blair nailed both of his touchline conversion and at 0-14 things were not looking good for Johnson's young team.

England did mount some pressure on the Baa-Baas and after a rare period of controlled possession Ben Foden rode Balshaw's tackle to score England's first try.

The whole Baa-Baas ethos was summed up by the flying hooker Shalk Brits. The South African, who is joining Saracens next season, was everywhere, and his stellar performance cumulated with a goose-step and turn of pace to set up Elsom's try.

More questionable defending in midfield allowed D'Arcy to shrug off three would-be tacklers and put Balshaw in to claim his brace. Minutes later Lewsey did the same for D'Arcy. With the scoreboard at 5-33 in the visitors favour things were looking ominous for England.

The only plus point for Johnson will be the way his team fought back to eventually only lose by seven points. The game turned when Phil Waugh was sin-binned for slowing the ball down in a ruck on his own line. In the following 10 minutes England scored three tries, all from Goode kicks from inside the Baa-Baas' 22. England's quartet of try-scoring debutants was completed by Turner-Hall, May and Banahan.

England will be worried heading into the two-Test series with Argentina. Johnson's main concerns will be the team's questionable defence and inability to retain possession

Ed Hoadley / Eurosport