England JWC side to play Italy

England Under 20 starting XV to take on Italy
15 Charlie Walker (Harlequins)
14 Marland Yarde (London Irish)
13 Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs)
12 Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby)
11 Josh Bassett (Bedford Blues)
10 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
9 Dan Robson (Gloucester Rugby)

1 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Cheifs)
2 Nathan Morris (London Wasps)
3 Ross Harrison (Sale Sharks)
4 Sam Twomey (Harlequins)
5 Dominic Barrow (Leeds Carnegie)
6 David Sisi (London Irish)
7 Chris Walker (Leeds Carnegie) (C)
8 Billy Vunipola (London Wasps)

Replacements
16 Max Crumpton (Saracens)
17 Alec Hepburn (London Wasps)
18 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins)
19 George Merrick (Harlequins)
20 Jack Clifford (Harlequins)
21 Ben Spencer (Saracens)
22 Ryan Mills (Gloucester Rugby)
23 Ben Ransom (Saracens)


Lots of changes, notably what I believe are first starts for Walker at 15, Hill at 13, Heathcote at 12, Sisi at 6 and Harrison at 3. Twomey is back from injury, Basset starts on the left wing, Slade is FH.

Strong side, can't say I've seen much of Heathcote at 12. Is this one Wednesday?

The pack looks decent enough. Good to see Harrison get a game, Sinkler is first choice for the tougher games but it's good for him to have competition. Very athletic second row paring. The backrow is MASSIVE (well 2/3 of it anyway) with Vunipola nearly 20st and Sisi nearly 19st!

Not sure about the backline, too many players are playing out of position for my liking. Don't like the centre paring, Hill is usually an inside centre and he should be interchanging with Mill. This will probably happen later on in the tournament, with Charlie Walker, Will Addison or Jamie Elliott playing off them.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Strong side, can't say I've seen much of Heathcote at 12. Is this one Wednesday?

It's on tomorrow at 3:30 marra.

Strong side looking forward to seeing them explode out of the blocks.

Is this televised at all?

Interesting side, odd looking backline but that forward pack should win it for them anyhows.

yappysnap wrote:Is this televised at all?

Interesting side, odd looking backline but that forward pack should win it for them anyhows.

Jebus I wonder why I bother This is a 'sticky' on the main Rugby Union page and I put it together so that people wouldn't have to keep asking - is it on ?

The GUIDE

I guess Italy is seen as the most straightforward game, but the backline is odd.

PenfroPete wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Is this televised at all?

Interesting side, odd looking backline but that forward pack should win it for them anyhows.

Jebus I wonder why I bother This is a 'sticky' on the main Rugby Union page and I put it together so that people wouldn't have to keep asking - is it on ?

The GUIDE

Sorry Pete! In my defence I do have the memory span of a guinea pig

Heathcote has had an excellent season for Bath, supposedly deputising for Donald but given Donald's form and fitness Heatcote has had as much time in the jersey.

He's obviously been picked at 12 for his distribution skills and to add a kicking option, he played at IC for a while in the academy so it wont be all new to him, he's a solid tackler and has a good turn of speed too. I'll be very interested to see how he gets on today.

I doubt Rowntree would pick a pack this size for the senior side. It'll be interesting to see how mobile they are.

DaveM wrote:I doubt Rowntree would pick a pack this size for the senior side. It'll be interesting to see how mobile they are.

I was thinking the same thing. They will be great carrying the ball, but I suspect that the Baby Blacks would be easily able to outmaneuver them. Think they will need to pick Sisi or Vunipola at some point.

On a side note, (this is mainly aimed at LIrish fans) is there a chance Sisi will move forward to play in the Second Row ? I think I read that he had in the past and I was wondering if it might be a long term option for him if back-row proves too competitive? He's probably short a couple of inches (odd thing to say about a 6ft 4in 19 year old I know!)

That didn't take long (the size reference), the England team have some 'big units'.

Got to love the Italian anthem.

Nice weather for it, it'll be interesting to see if the England boys can spin some balls out early on and not get bogged down in an arm wrestle.

England get isolated because they went wide too early and Italy get the penalty. England turn the lineout over though.

Italy defending well but give away a soft penalty.

3-0 England (Slade)

Bad mistake from Slade, dropping the ball in his own 22.

Ref needs to watch the Italians early engagement, they've done it every time so far.

Italy get the first try! Poor organisational defence allows them to get in on the short side. Good play from the winger though, he had a lot to do.

3-5 (11 mins)

Long break in play for the Italian 13, he planted his foot and it looked like he opened the joint and did his ligament. Looks as though his tournament is done unfortunately,

Robson redeems himself after a shocker, by creating a try for Bassett. He really reminds me of Joe Simpson. He has electric pace and an eye for the gap, but his basics are relatively poor.

10-5 ( 16 min)

WTF is up with the passing!?! England mince several opportunities in the space of a few seconds.

Englands basics are appalling, compare the passing and kicking to oz and they are streeets ahead.

Robson is really starting to urine me off, his passes continually die on the recipient and his decision making has been poor.

How's Slade getting on?

It's all been a bid disjointed, it's difficult to say really. His passing hasn't been great, but he's had poor service himself.

Dear me, I hope no-one was expecting this England side to go too far. So far they're playing like school kids. Italy looks like the more mature side.

Try England

To be fair to them, a good portion of the team are playing out of position and there are quite a few new combinations. But I don't think they're as good as other years either though.

As I write there is a really well worked move, with Yarde taking a great line which puts him under the posts.

This Italian team is very poor, tactically their flyhalf has no idea, their skills are poor, their decision making is pathetic, they should have punished england there.

Ok I give up on the Samoa V New Zealand game it's turning into a farce, how is this game bearing up?

England are just trying to force it way too much, they are putting passes that don't need be made and they are going wide far too early.

Robson gets a streaky try as the Italian hooker overthrows.

24-5 (39 mins)

Pretty much the same thing iss happening here.

24-5

I saw old pineapple head lining up for the Italians during the anthems how is he playing?

Yarde looks the one of this lot who may push for senior honours in the foreseeable future. The front row also seem technically proficient, and have coped with that massive tighthead pretty well.

Not sure about Vunipola. He's huge and a big threat on the front foot, but always looks likely to get turned over.

Robson often plays a cheeky dummy he must've learnt from Sinbad. Italy are spent.

Slade slotting through some perfect place kicks.

Slade's kicking has been outstanding. I don't follow Exeter much, but is he likely to be getting much gametime next season?

Pathetic passing again...

Bloody hell 3 people to pas to and he manages to give it to the Italian!

Is there any who can run fast in Italy? U20 is same same problem to the adults.

Forwards can competing for 50 minutes but not fitness and backs too much smaller and slowly.

Might be a bit better now with Spencer and Mills coming on.

'Jock' Clifford, well done commentator...

Kyle 'Snickler' as well.

Bringing on more carrying tight five forwards has worked against the tired Italians.

Liquid rugby

'Carl' Mills now, he's good at this isn't he?

England could/ should break the fifty point barrier here.

The scrappy tries are putting a gloss on this, England will need to improve A LOT to compete against the better teams.