Giants 17 Rams 10: Landon Collins stars in first ever NFL Twickenham match

Landon Collins' New York Giants team-mates should rename him ‘London’ Collins after he came to their rescue as they won the first ever competitive game, other than rugby, played at Twickenham in its 107-year history.

With a ‘forward pass’ legal for the first time in the history of the hallowed rugby turf, the strong safety on the Giants defense intercepted two passes made by Rams quarterback Case Keenum. Both plays produced touchdowns for New York against the Rams, who made the 12-hour trip from Los Angeles to be the ‘home’ team at the home of England rugby.

England Six Nations stars James Haskell, Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph and 2003 Rugby World Cup winning England captain Martin Johnson were presented to the 74,121 crowd — a fraction under a sellout for an NFL game at the ground — and said after the game they didn’t recognise the world famous rugby venue, dressed for American football game.

Twickenham easily accommodated a gridiron pitch, with Rams and Giants logos painted in the endzones behind the goalposts and another Rams logo in the centre of the pitch.

Instead of white shirts bearing the red rose of England or the red of Wales or all black of New Zealand, fans wore game shirts of the Giants, Rams and every other team in the 32-club NFL, just as they do at the International Series’ regular home, Wembley.

The sun shone, Nicole Sherzinger sang the American national anthem and Laura Wright belted out God Save The Queen in response, The Rams cheerleaders danced throughout, music rocked the stadium, there were the usual fireworks and flames and the atmosphere underlined why the NFL is here to stay in the UK, whether it be at Twickenham, Wembley and Tottenham’s new stadium when it is built.

From the fans’ point of view, they got the second part of their annual three-game NFL fix but it wasn’t a classic. The Giants of the NFC East Division, returned to New York with a won four lost three record.

The Rams go home to the NFC West at 3-4. It was 10-10 at half-time, scoreless in the third quarter and there was just the game-winning Giants touchdown to show for the fourth quarter. With just under five minutes gone in the opening quarter, wide receiver Tavon Austin scored a touchdown on a ten-yard pass from Keenum and with just over five minutes left in the quarter Greg Zuerlein kicked a 36-yard field goal to give the Rams a 10-0 lead.

With eight minutes 15 seconds left of the second quarter Robbie Gould sent over a 29-yard field goal to reduce the deficit to 10-3. Former Chicago Bears player Gould was drafted in at the last minute to replace regular Giants kicker Josh Brown, who was left at home by the club pending further investigation into a 2015 domestic abuse case.