England Under 20s squad

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Forwards
Archie McArthur (Gloucester)
George Patten (Northampton Saints)
Calum Scott (London Irish)
Finn Theobald-Thomas (Gloucester)
Nathan Jibulu (Harlequins)
Afolabi Fasogbon (London Irish)
James Halliwell (Bristol Bears)
Tim Hoyt (Leicester Tigers)
Harry Browne (Harlequins)
Lewis Chessum (Leicester Tigers)
Danny Eite (Gloucester)
Robert Carmichael (Leicester Tigers)
Finn Carnduff (Leicester Tigers)
Joshua Manz (Leicester Tigers)
Guy Pepper (Newcastle Falcons)
Josh Dingley (Bath Rugby)
Chandler Cunningham-South (London Irish)
Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs)

Backs
Charlie Bracken (Saracens)
Nye Thomas (Sale Sharks)
Sam Harris (Bath Rugby)
Sam Worsley (Bristol Bears)
Cassius Cleaves (Harlequins)
Joseph Woodward (Leicester Tigers)
Rekeiti Ma'asi-White (Sale Sharks)
Benjamin Waghorn (Harlequins)
Jacob Cusick (Leicester Tigers)
Joe Jenkins (Bristol Bears)
Josh Hathaway (Gloucester)
Tobias Elliott (Saracens)
Connor Slevin (Harlequins)
Louie Johnson (Newcastle Falcons)

Some interesting players here, dual qualified Hathaway swapping nations. A couple of simply mahoosive 20 stone tightheads in Hoyt and Fasogbon. The backrow of Cunningham-South, Pepper and Fisilau would be exceptional at this level if they are actually available. Nye Thomas a very explosive scrum half to add spice in a position we looked weak in during the junior world cup. Lewis Chessum a man not known for being short has brought his taller pal Rob Carmichael into camp with him. The bloke is a mere 6ft11. If the hookers can't successfully throw the ball to those two then they should really consider other positions or forms of employment.

For the potential high shot, they were both bent in half at the waist, if you're penalising that you are basically saying that he is not allowed to make the tackle.   I think sense prevailed.  England played well, but they always seem to have a sleepy 15-20 minutes after half time.

It seems a mixed year. Lad's like Bradbury, Harris, Elliott and Hathaway look like U20s superstars, who may disappear when they get to senior rugby.  If I had to pick players from this group I'd look at Chessum, Cunningham-South, Bracken and Ma'asi-White.  I don't know how to judge front rowers at this level, so many of them seem to fall away.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:Game over. Solid win. Good performances from the back row Woodman deserved mom.
Bradbury looks a classy player.

I thought that whole 10-12-13 axis worked really well together. Really mature performances from the three of them.

Really good game again from England. Ma'asi-White is such a good player and hopefully go on to represent senior team.
Bradbury another very good game at 10.

Woodman was a menace at the breakdown and a deserved MOM. Any relation to the world cup Woodman?

lostinwales wrote:Woodman was a menace at the breakdown and a deserved MOM. Any relation to the world cup Woodman?

Nope no relation to Trevor. Looks a talent though.

I'd add Fisilau to Cumbrian's list of those to watch and mirror feelings that front rows, props in particular, are near impossible to judge at this age. Tim Hoyt looks a talent for instance but is gigantic that part of that might just be physical attributes that won't cross over as much at senior level.

Over the last few years it does feel like a lot more of the squads as a whole are kicking onto Premiership rugby rapidly which is a very good sign though as that's the most important thing for them taking that next step. Without going through all the squads over a long period there could be a factor of recency bias there though.

Looking back to the 2020 squad (still listed on wiki but also not a bad point as those players are now 21/22 so a good age to be impacting senior rugby) almost all of them are now either Premiership regulars or heading that way. With several significantly better than that as well. It feels like 10 years back that sort of conversion wasn't quite happening.

Tuilagi's little nephew turning out for the French then.

Henry's son Posolo and he is absolutely gigantic even for a Tuilagi.

king_carlos wrote:Henry's son Posolo and he is absolutely gigantic even for a Tuilagi.

Apparently 6'4" and 149kg!!!!

The England locks are 6ft9 and 6ft10 respectively. The locks going head to head aren't small in this one.

Ma'asi White moves to 12 presumably because Woodward is injured (which is a shame because he's been good) but this is also the position he's most likely to play for Sale so hopefully it inspires Sanderson to back him there in the Prem. Jenkins in at 13 has a couple of appearances for Bristol under his belt so not a bad option to bring in.

Is England's replacement SH playing for the right team?

Aneurin Nye Thomas?

lostinwales wrote:Is England's replacement SH playing for the right team?

Aneurin Nye Thomas?

I think he's a Scouser so might qualify for Ireland and Wales as well.

The England Rugby YouTube channel has just over three minutes of video highlights. I watched without knowing the score. When the first sequence showed England butchering a try, it didn't augur well for the final result and, indeed, it was a real pasting in the end. The rest of the highlights were French scores, save for the English try, without any real playing context for why we were so poor.

That was a hammering. England were poor, so many errors and wrong options taken. Credit to France who were excellent and didn't run out of steam in forwards which was I think Englands hope.

I blame Bath, three bonus point victories and then they get to the Rec…

We looked devoid of ideas in attack. The starting 9 was the whip it away from the base type which is great, except our ball presentation wasn't good and the lack of creation at 10 and in the centres meant we didn't make metres and kicked it away.

We really missed Woodward at 12, I didn't think we would as the centres we had selected were strong carrying options. Without the secondary playmaker in the midfield a lot was reliant on the 10 to find something. He looked to run out if ideas quite quickly and the back three took chances that didn't pay off.

Scrum was again a bit of an issue but more worrying was some of the lineout throws where our jumpers were strong and able to disrupt. I didn't see all the game but there were a couple not straight in the French 22 which were real coach killers.