England U20 name side for Six Nations decider

Posted on Mar 14, 2013 in England U20

England Under 20 play Wales on Friday night in a match Head Coach Rob Hunter has described as a “big one”.

The game kicks off at 7.35pm at Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay, live on S4C (Sky channel 134).

Wales are unbeaten in this season’s Under 20 Six Nations campaign while England have lost once but have the greater points difference, meaning Friday’s clash in north Wales is winner takes all.

Title holders England have brought wing Anthony Watson, prop Kyle Sinckler and hooker Nathan Morris into the starting XV and Hunter is looking forward to the match.

He said: “It’ll be a tough game, but a big game in front of a sold out crowd. Wales have performed very well in this competition and they’ve been quite consistent with their selection – we’ll approach this one as we would any other, we want a good performance from the guys.”

Friday will be Hunter’s final match at the helm of the Under 20s before he moves to Exeter Chiefs, he has won 19 of his 24 matches in charge, but says that he can’t afford to think about this one being his last just yet: “It hasn’t really crossed my mind to be honest, the focus is on Friday night.”

(more…)

Sloan and Purdy added to England U-20s squad

Posted on Jan 10, 2013 in England U20

ENGLAND Under-20s have announced their revised Elite Player Squad, making two changes with Harlequins centre Harry Sloan and Leicester Tigers wing Henry Purdy coming into the 32-man group.

Head Coach Rob Hunter’s squad will look to defend their Under 20 Six Nations title over the next two months before heading to France for the IRB Junior World Championship in June.

Hunter said: “We’ve made a couple of changes to the squad and brought in two guys who have been performing consistently well at their club. Both Harry and Henry are talented players and we’re excited to see what they can bring.

“Our focus at the moment is solely on our own preparation and that first Six Nations game against Scotland in Plymouth. They’ve had a warm up game and they’ll be coming at us from the first whistle, but we’ve trained well and we’re looking forward to getting out there on February 1.”

(more…)

Plymouth to host England U20 curtain raiser

Posted on Oct 7, 2012 in England U20

England Under 20 will kick off the defence of their Six Nations trophy against Scotland on Friday, February 1 at Plymouth Albion’s Brickfields Stadium, a game Head Coach Rob Hunter has called a “great opportunity”.

The match will be shown live on Sky Sports and Sky Sports HD, kick off 5.45pm, and will be the first of three Under 20 matches to be hosted around the country, the other two venues are still to be confirmed.

England won both the 2011 and 2012 tournaments and will be aiming for an unprecedented third consecutive title, kicking off with a repeat of last year’s opening fixture. Scotland went down 59-3 against a strong England side last season but Hunter says that his squad won’t be thinking back to 12 months ago.

“It’s a new season and a new group of players,” he said. “Scotland squads are always well organised coming into the championship and we’ll treat them with the respect they deserve. The competition gets tougher every year. It’s great to be able to have the game in Plymouth, a fair chunk of our squad come from the south west so it’s fantastic for those guys, rugby supporters are passionate down there and it’s a great opportunity for us to play in front them”

With a dual registration agreement in place between Exeter Chiefs and Plymouth Albion for the 2012/13 season, fly half Henry Slade, prop Luke Cowan-Dickie and wing Jack Arnott are current regulars in the Albion first team and are excited to play at their adopted home.

Slade said: “It’s great for us to have such a prestigious game down here in Plymouth, it will make us feel right at home playing in front of such a receptive crowd.  It will be so much easier for our friends and family to be here to support us and there could be five players from Devon if the guys currently on loan at Pirates [Jack Nowell and Sam Hill] are also selected.”

Cowan-Dickie added: “It’s awesome, it’s a massive honour to play at a local club. Living in the south west usually means a great deal of travel when we are involved in internationals so this time it’s much more likely we’ll have family and friends here to watch.  That’s great as it’s always special playing for the Under 20s.”

Plymouth’s Acting CEO Debbie Fisher said: “To be successful in our bid to host one of next year’s U20’s Internationals is fantastic news for Plymouth Albion and the local community. The game will be a huge boost for professional rugby in the region and will have the added attraction of several local players appearing for their country in their own county.”

Dr Graham Stirling, Chairman of Albion agreed, and added: "We are delighted for all rugby followers in our region to have successfully bid for this prestigious England U20′s international game against Scotland. It makes it all the more interesting having Slade, Cowan-Dickie and Arnott, our Exeter Chiefs dual registered players in the squad plus Hill and Nowell who are dual registered with the Cornish Pirates. It has all the makings of a fantastic evening at the start of the Six Nations Championship"

Ticket prices for Ground entry to the match will be competitive at £12 for Adult entry with concessions for Seniors, Students and Under 18’s at £9.  Children under 12 will have free entry to the Ground.  A separate pricing structure will be published for entry to the seated Grandstand and Covered Redrow stand.

ENGLAND RUGBY NEWS: England name Under 20 EPS for 2012/13

Posted on Sep 3, 2012 in England U20

England have named an Under 20 Elite Player Squad containing an exciting blend of “experience, skill and power” for the 2012/13 season.

The 32-man group will look to defend the Under 20 Six Nations title in the New Year before heading to France for the IRB Junior World Championship next June.

Head Coach Rob Hunter, assisted by Nick Walshe, has called on 15 players previously capped at this level while five of the squad represented England at Under 18 level last season.

Hunter said: “We’re excited to work with the players in our squad. We have some guys back who played for us last season and five who played at Under 18 level last campaign.

“There are also a number of players who have shown up well for their clubs in pre-season. There is always huge competition at this age grade and a lot of players getting first team rugby at their clubs, it’s tough to narrow that down and we expect players to continue to push for inclusion.  It’s an exciting, skilful and powerful group. Competition for places will be high, but that’s just what you want.”

England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster added: “The England Under 20 squad is once again a strong one and the amount of competition for places in each position reflects well on the work the regional academies at the clubs are doing.

“A lot of the players in this squad have come through our age group international programme and that goes to show how well the development pathway is working with players progressing through from the 18s into the Under 20s and then hopefully pushing for places in the Senior and Saxons Elite Player Squads."

Since the formation of the England U20 side in 2007 – replacing the England U21 team – they have an impressive five-year record. In the 50 matches played the squad have won 39 and lost just eleven, a win percentage of 78 per cent. The U20s have won three Six Nations Grand Slams, (2008, 2011 and 2012) and have been runners up in the Junior World Championship on three occasions.

(more…)

England U20 team to face Australia

Posted on Jun 22, 2012 in England U20

England Under 20 have named their side to face Australia in the IRB Junior World Championship tomorrow at the University of Western Cape, kick off 15:30 (BST).

A win would give England a seventh place finish in the competition, but returning fly half Tom Heathcote is taking nothing for granted.

He said: “We’re looking forward to going out there and making a statement. The boys have been pretty disappointed after our last two games [a 28-15 loss to South Africa and a 27-12 loss to Ireland] but we’ve got one match to put things right, end on a high, and everyone is massively excited by that chance.

“We’ve done some analysis work on Australia and they’re a good side. They have some good athletes and strong backs and we know that if we’re going to win we’re going to have to play at our peak.“

(more…)

Bluffer’s guide to the Junior World Cup

Posted on Jun 4, 2012 in Age Grade Rugby, England U20, Ireland U20, Junior World Cup, Scottish U20, Social Pundit, Welsh U20

 

The JWC is Rugby’s premier age-grade tournament, a yearly gathering of the best U20 players in the world. The tournament works on a pool system with teams then going into a series of play-offs which ensure that every team will have five games. This year, it will run over three weeks in South Africa. The tournament has become an important part of players’ development and often throws up some of the best rugby in the calendar as highly talented players strut their stuff in a far less regimented environment than normal.

 

That, at least, is the theory. In practice, we are missing a number of the best available players this year due to either injury or moving onto higher things. A good example is England (hereafter referred to as the Baby Orcs) who are missing Matt Kvesic, Elliot Daly and George Ford – arguably the three best players in the side, and all stars of last year’s tournament. Kvesic is injured. Daly is recovering from being overplayed by Wasps due to being vital to their relegation battle, all with a knee injury that stopped him from training. Ford has been left behind to undergo an extensive conditioning course during pre-season and all the hints are that if he’d travelled, it would have been with the full squad and not the U20 squad. As Leicester motormouth said, this may be Ford’s last summer off for a long time. Nor are the English absentees the only ones. Amongst Ford’s fly-half colleagues, Heineken Cup finalist Paddy Jackson has likewise been left alone for a full pre-season – assuming Kidney doesn’t carry out his threat of taking him to New Zealand in the event of injury – while South Africa’s star fly-half Johann Goosen is missing out through injury. George North, Scotland’s Stuart Hogg, French hooker Christopher Tolofua and New Zealand’s precocious openside Sam Cane have been reserved for this purpose, while Cane’s compatriot Perenara has been left out to fulfil S15 duties. That just begins to scratch the surface. As players hit the big time younger and younger, the list of players injured and reserved for more important business seems set to grow. Indeed, some countries (Ireland in particular) have complained about the tournament’s timing, claiming it mucks up with getting proper pre-seasons for their players. Despite all this, there will still be a very high standard, and I still intend to watch as much possible.

 

Games start today with a full fixture list available here –  http://www.irb.com/jwc/fixturesresults/index.html. Group A will see champions New Zealand pitted against Wales as well as Samoa and Fiji. Group B places England, Ireland and Italy alongside hosts South Africa. Group C contains Scotland, Australia, France and Argentina. The three pool winners plus the best runner up will go into the play-offs for 1^st place.  The three pool losers plus the worst third placed team will go into the play-off for 9^th place, with 12^th place being relegated to the JWT.  All the other teams go into the highly exciting play-off for 5^th place. Right now, all of the home nations are in the JWC, although their prospects differ wildly.

 

Wales

 

Wales did poorly in the U20 Six Nations, but the squad is so different from then as to render all comparisons practically irrelevant. The Welsh might be scenting the possibility of a place in the 1^st place playoffs here as for all their physicality, bonus point wins against Samoa and Tonga are possible, which might be enough given the competitiveness of the other groups. Wales will probably need to avoid any repeat of last year’s ninety-odd point gaping at the hands of New Zealand for that to happen. That will probably require the full strength XV however, which all of a sudden compromises the possibility of victory against Samoa and Tonga. In all probability however, Wales will find themselves in the 5^th place play-off again.

 

Players to watch for

 

Forward – Dan Thomas looks like another instalment from a conveyor belt of opensides. When Wales

were getting beat up in the 6N, the Scarlets player constantly looked the goods.

 

Back – The magical Matthew Morgan. Providing he overcomes his midgetness enough to present a respectable speed bump in defence at international level, he has all the skills to be the next great Welsh running 10, and has already shown a tremendous level of assurance and skill for the Ospreys.

 

Scotland

 

Scotland had a poor Six Nations and things aren’t going to get any better now despite a backline with plenty of talent on paper. Scotland’s problems all lie up front, where their pack looks uninspiring and short of its best players, such as Gray junior. In fact, I’ll just go ahead and be a total pessimist and say I can see Scotland playing to survive in this competition, as they’re certainly finishing nowhere but bottom in their group. Well, unless Argentina are very bad I suppose.

 

Forward – Robin Hislop. Supposedly. This is totally a borrowed recommendation, as they’ve all looked pretty subpar to me, but Hislop has managed some gametime with Edinburgh this season, which isn’t bad for a young prop. Is still probably going to get beat up though.

 

Back – Mark Bennett. Injuries have curtailed Bennett’s progress recently, which is a shame as he was starting to make inroads into the Clermont team at the start of the season.

 

Ireland

 

Ireland have been consistently good at 6N level and consistently outgunned come the JWC in recent years and in truth I don’t see any other likely outcome this year. Ireland weren’t able to match England’s clinical edge in the spring and won’t stand against the Boks at home. This leaves Ireland staring squarely at the mid-place play-offs, where they’ll hope to do better than last year. It’s a shame, as this is a talented Irish team much bolstered by the return of star tighthead Tadgh Furlong

 

Forward – Iain Henderson. Repeatedly Ireland’s stand-out player in the U20 6Ns where he seemed ubiquitous and able to make ground seemingly at will, Henderson confirmed his potential with a solid outing and blistering try at Thomond Park in Ulster’s last league game of the season.

 

Back – Luke McGrath. The inability of the Irish to produce top level scrum-halves has been an ongoing issue, but to say they’re getting excited about Luke McGrath is a gross understatement. His basics may be ropey at times, but he has all the skills, and the most valuable trait of all in top level decision making.

 

England

 

The standard has been set high, and anything less than a final appearance is failure. Yet this is one of the weaker England squads to go out, and they will need to come home with silverware to be judged a success. To do so, they first need to go through the Baby Boks at home, and then in all probability New Zealand and either Australia or France. It’s a hard route, albeit one England teams have travelled before. England have traditionally been one of the strongest teams at this level due to superior fitness and athleticism, allied to a high level of technical ability. The speed is still there, but with a very young pack and a backline on the small side, it’s questionable whether they have the power to dominate collisions against the best sides. A loss to South Africa wouldn’t be the end of the world, as you’d back them to have the attacking power to be in for best runner up, but if they can’t match South Africa, then the omens don’t look good

 

Forward – Kyle Sinckler. What is it with Harlequins and tight five forwards at the moment? Despite being a year young, Sinckler carried like the extra-large size version of Steffon Armitage that he resembles, and his scrummaging seemed to show technique as well as power, although I’m not the best judge. Nevertheless, likely to be England’s battering ram of choice

 

Back – Marland Yarde. This could have been any of a half-dozen players, but I eventually went with the London Irish flier. Yarde has some serious pace, is probably the most powerful of England’s likely starting backline and has shown a fair rugby brain so far for England. Although with Addison, Elliot and Walker, he mightn’t even start!

 

Five others to look out for

 

1: Liam Gill, Australia – Statistically the best poacher in the Super 15 at present. Yes, there are some questions about the stats and what they consider turnovers, but statistically he’s currently better than Pocock, McCaw, Brussow and a number of others.

 

2: Steven Kitshoff, South Africa – Kitshoff has been playing week-in, week-out for the Stormers, to the point that their coach has been complaining loudly about his inclusion in the U20s. Enormous and ginger, the loosehead prop will be easy to keep an eye out for.

 

3. Sebastien Taofifenua, France – Speaking of massive and easy to spot, Taofifenua is the biggest man at the tournament, and will be playing tighthead prop in between bouts of baby eating.

 

4. Gael Fickou, France – Continuing the Gallic theme, I don’t know much about Fickou save that he’s already playing for Toulon at the age of 18. I’m taking that as a fairly heavy hint that he’s got something about him.

 

5. Scott Eade, New Zealand – It’s a fairly low key selection for the Baby Blacks, but fly-half Eade’s racked up some ITM cup time for Southland and frankly, when isn’t it worth keeping an eye out for a NZ fly-half anyway? Eade should have the armchair ride of his life at this tournament.