England U20 vs. FranceU20's

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Chat about the game vs. France begins on page 4.

15 Ben Howard (Worcester Warriors)
14 Henry Purdy (Leicester Tigers)
13 Mark Jennings (Sale Sharks)
12 Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs)
11 Jack Arnott (Exeter Chiefs)
10 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
9 Alex Day (Northampton Saints)

1 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs)
2 Nathan Morris (London Wasps)
3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins)
4 Elliott Stooke (Gloucester Rugby)
5 Dom Barrow (Leeds Carnegie)
6 Harry Wells (Leicester Tigers)
7 Joel Conlon (Exeter Chiefs)
8 Jack Clifford (Harlequins) (c)

Replacements
16 Danny Herriott (Northampton Saints)
17 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (Northampton Saints)
18 Scott Wilson (Newcastle Falcons)
19 Tom Jubb (Saracens)
20 David Sisi (London Irish)
21 Callum Braley (Bristol Rugby)
22 Ollie Devoto (Bath Rugby)
23 Tom Stephenson (Northampton Saints)

French Team:

15. Wieprecht (Clermont); 14. Lacroix (Albi), 13. Fickou (Toulouse), 12. Dussartre (Racing), 11. Parez (Racing); 10. Mallet (Stade français), 9. Serin (Bordeaux); 7. Camara (Massy), 8. Tauleigne (Bourgoin), 6. Babillot (Castres); 5. Jedraziak (cap., Clermont), 4. Bastien (Agen); 3. Cotet (Perpignan), 2. Ruffenach (Biarritz), 1. Baille (Toulouse).

Remplaçants: 16. Hollet (Perpignan), 17. Custoja (Perpignan), 18. Vartanov (Racing), 19. Cros (Toulouse), 20. Domenech (Narbonne), 21. Vialelle (Castres), 22. Le Bourhis (La Rochelle), 23. Singer (Clermont).


Loosehead Prop:

Luke Cowan-Dickie (6ft 0in & 17st 4lb) 19 (Exeter Chiefs)
Alec Hepburn (6ft 1in & 15st 12lb) 19 (Wasps)

Tighthead Prop:

Kyle Sinckler (6ft 0in & 18st 12lb) 19 (Harlequins)
Scott Wilson (6ft 2in * 18st 10lb) 18 (Newcastle Falcons)

Hooker

Max Crumpton (5ft 11in & 15st 10lb) 19 (Saracens)
Nathan Morris (6ft 0in & 17st 2lb) 19 (Wasps)
Scott Spurling (5ft 10in & 15st 10lb) 19 (Saracens)

Second Row:

Dominic Barrow (6ft 6in & 17st 11lb) 19 (Leeds Carnegie)
Tom Jubb (6ft 6in & 15st 8lb) 19 (Saracens)
Tom Price (6ft 9in & 16st 5lb) 19 (Leicester)
Elliott Stooke (6ft 7in & 18st 1lb) 19 (Gloucester)
Harry Wells (6ft 5in & 17st 4lb) 19 (Leicester)

Blindside Flanker

Ross Moriaty (6ft 3in & 15st 3lb) 18 (Gloucester)

Openside Flanker

Matt Hankin (6ft 0in & 14st 2lb) 19 (Saracens)

No 8:

Jack Clifford (6ft 4in & 15st 10lb) 19 (Harlequins)
David Sisi (6ft 4in & 18st 12lb) 19 (London Irish)

Scrum Half

Calum Braley (5ft 11in & 13st 0lb) 18 (Bristol)
Alex Day (6ft 0in & 13st 9lb) 19 (Northampton)
Nathan Fowles (5ft 10in & 14st 0lb) 19 (Sale)

Flyhalf

Henry Slade (6ft 3in & 13st 7lb) 19 (Exeter)
Ollie Devoto (6ft 0in & 15st 1lb) 19 (Bath)
Will Hooley (5ft 12in & 11st 11lb) 19 (Northampton)

Inside Centre

Sam Hill (6ft 0in & 15st 10lb) 19 (Exeter Chiefs)
Tom Stephenson (6ft 1in & 14st 11lb) (Northampton)

Outside Centre

Mark Jennings (6ft 0in & 14st 6lb) 19 (Sale Sharks)
Harry Sloan

Winger

Jack Arnott (5ft 11in & 11st 4lb) 19 (Exeter)
Ben Howard (6ft 5in & 14st 13lb) 19 (Worcester)
Henry Purdy

Fullback

Tom Collins (5ft 11 & 12st 8lb) 18 (Northampton)
Jack Nowell (5ft 11in & 14st 0lb) 19 (Exeter)
Anthony Watson (6ft 2in & 13st 5lb) 18 (London Irish)

England v Scotland, live on Sky Sports HD
Date: Friday, February 1
Venue: Plymouth Albion RFC
Kick-off: 17:45

Ireland v England
Date: Friday, February 8
Venue: Dubarry Park, Athlone
Kick-off: 18:35

England v France, live on RFU.com
Date: Saturday, February 23
Venue: Sixways, Worcester
Kick-off: 15:00

England v Italy, live Sky Sports HD
Date: Friday, March 8
Venue: Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton
Kick-off: 20:05

Wales v England
Date: Friday, March 15
Venue: Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay
Kick-off: 19:30

Weather conditions were awful meaning that it's hard to give much of a review. Lots of power and pace from England with hints of an exciting offloading game but a lack of tactical kicking and an issue with the lineout though if 6 foot 9 lineout operator Price returns in a week or so then that might help.

Scotland had pace but were beaten up front and lacked a bit of physicality compared to their English counterparts, two team ycs didn't help. There is a well drilled kick chase with the 15 capable of hanging up and unders with the Scottish 9 putting in some lovely box kicks to win territory anf keep his side in the game. I suspect there is more to come from the 10 Allan who was a good controlling influence if outshone by his opposite number Slade who's attacking play was very classy indeed.

Considering the history of this fixture, and the obvious differences in the conditioning and experience of the two teams, id say scotland can take a bit of confidence from tonight.

Standout performances from Hidalgo Clyne and Ashe who combined brilliantly to keep a retreating scrum from becoming a disaster all night.
I hope Sinclair gets a chance at the first team with perpignan, he could be one for the future.
Bennett did well at 12, but Id rather see him at 13 where he gets more space to work his magic.

A better drilled Scotland U20 side than I have seen in a long long time think the games against Ayr and the Scottish Club 15 have helped.
Johnny Gray is immense in the line out and good work rate around the field, Adam Ashe looks to have potential, Bennett looks sharp, good call by Lineen to try Hidalgo Clyne at scrum half instead of fullback and Rory Hughes looks like he can cause damage in better conditions.
Major problems still the front row, England's props look 2 years more developed than ours.

aye, the hidalgo clyne at fullback malarkey last year was a bit stupid considering hes not a strong defender.

Would love to see Laidlaw, kennedy and Clyne as edinburghs scrumhalves next year.

For Scotland - here are a few standout players who may well make it to full cap level within 2 years.


Hidalgo-Clyne scrum half. v impressive distribution and great kicking skills.
Ashe. no 8. looks like a younger version of Beattie with amazing handling skills. v exciting prospect.
Allan. fly half. plays in south africa (better nail him before the saffers do!). hell of a good ball player, good on feet v good tactical and place kicking. imho looks to be the most natural fly half we have at any level.
Gray Jr. big powerful. like sr
Sinclair. this guy plays for Perpignan. He looked the best lock on the park. 6'6

lots of potential in that team

well done boys.

Impressed with your age levels tbh I didnt expect it after last year!

Agree on Hidalgo-Clyne. I want to see him fast tracked into the Edinburgh squad next season as back-up to Laidlaw and Rees (with a view to moving Rees on the following season or whenever his contract is up). He played a very composed game and although his distribution was erratic at times, he was so often under huge pressure to get the ball away as the English forwards came through the ruck. Very promising performance.

This had the hallmarks of a Lineen side. Very well organised and clearly thought through tactics. Really managed to spoil England, who when they go going towards the end gave a glipmse of what could have happened had Scotland not battled so hard earlier.

Very pleased with that performance, despite the result.

it was occurring to me that lineen seems to have the magic touch we lack in our other coaches

This result and that of the A team has inspired me to post again, after a bit on the sidelines.

As has been pointed out above, considering the result last year, and the fact that half of the Scottish team are amateurs, I think that is a good result. It seems that there is a core of very good players at this age.

Did Scott Wilson come on at any point? If we could coax him back to Scotland, that would be a huge bonus - but from interviews etc, it looks like he has chosen England.

England looked like they wanted to play in the first half but the first quarter of the second they kicked too much and too aimlessly, nearly caused ourselves a lot more problems from it as well.

As a Quins fan great to see Synckler and Clifford have good games, I can not wait to see Synckler in the first team in a couple of seasons time, Clifford looks to have the goods to be the natural replacement for Easter as well.

Thought the Eng fly half played very well, not too sure about the centres at times though but then the conditions and pitch were very poor. Should have been played here in Surrey, Esher's pitch is looking very nice by all accounts at the moment.

Agreed that Slade looked really good. So many line breaks came through him.

I was impressed with Slade (I thought he looked better than Ford did later for the Saxons), Hill and Watson. I'm afraid conditions rather ruined the game.

England:

15 Ben Howard (Worcester Warriors)
14 Jack Arnott (Exeter Chiefs)
13 Mark Jennings (Sale Sharks)
12 Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs)
11 Henry Purdy (Leicester Tigers)
10 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
9 Alex Day (Northampton Saints)
1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (Northampton Saints)
2 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs)
3 Scott Wilson (Newcastle Falcons)
4 Elliott Stooke (Gloucester Rugby)
5 Dom Barrow (Leeds Carnegie)
6 Ross Moriarty (Gloucester Rugby)
7 Joel Conlon (Exeter Chiefs)
8 Jack Clifford (C) (Harlequins)



Replacements:
16 Max Crumpton (Saracens)
17 Nathan Morris (London Wasps)
18 Danny Herriott (Northampton Saints)
19 Tom Jubb (Saracens)
20 Harry Wells (Leicester Tigers)
21 Nathan Fowles (Sale Sharks)
22 Will Hooley (Northampton Saints)
23 Tom Collins (Northampton Saints)

Baffling. Last week the line-out was a farce, so this week we have a LH starting at hooker (there is clearly a project to convert him - why, when he's a brilliant LH?), and then two, yes two, hookers on the bench. Fowles should be starting in my opinion. I can only presume Nowell is playing for Exeter this year.

Oddly titled thread.

England U 20 v Ireland U 20 (teams are up)

Except the two teams being discussed are England and Scotland.

Robbie Henshaw (Connacht fullback) has been released by Eric Elwood to make his u20s debut this weekend.

Quality player.

Pot Hale wrote:Oddly titled thread.

England U 20 v Ireland U 20 (teams are up)

Except the two teams being discussed are England and Scotland.

It's reusing the old Scotland v England thread. The teams for Ireland are further down.

Whats hapened to Jamie George the Sarries hooker?
Or is he too old now for the U20's?

Pot Hale wrote:Oddly titled thread.

England U 20 v Ireland U 20 (teams are up)

Except the two teams being discussed are England and Scotland.

As Hammer said, I've been writing about the England U20's on this thread for most of the season and changed the title to draw people's attention to the team news. Although I screwed up because I thought that the Ireland Club team side was their U20's side so the thread title should read:

England U20's vs. Ireland U20's (Teams are up... except the Ireland one isn't up yet and ignore the stuff about Scotland and Ireland are at home so their name should be first).

Or something like that.

But that seemed a little unwieldy.

I'll update the front page of thread to indicate which page the teams are on (when I get the Ireland one).

propdavid_london wrote:Whats hapened to Jamie George the Sarries hooker?
Or is he too old now for the U20's?

Far too old, he's 23 this year. It is sad because I had him down as a stuck on future international, thought it was only a matter of time. Still young, but he is really going to want to start establishing himself as first choice Saracens hooker at some point soon.

Cumbrian,
I thought the same - Perhaps he should have moved as soon as Smit arrived. He's had next to no game time this season.

15 - Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/ Connacht)
14 - David Panter (Corinthians/Connacht)
13 - Tom Daly (Lansdowne/Leinster)
12 - Mark Roche (Lansdowne/ Connacht)
11 - Rory Scholes (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
10 - Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster)
9 - Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) Captain
1 - Peter Dooley (Lansdowne/Leinster)
2 - George McGuigan (Newcastle Falcons/Exile
3 - Chris Taylor (Malone/Ulster)
4 - Gavin Thornbury (UCD/Leinster)
5 -John Donnan (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
6 - Peadar Timmins (UCD/Leinster)
7 - Ryan Murphy (Dolphin/Munster)
8 - Conor Joyce (Malone/Ulster)
Replacements
16 - John Andrew (Ballymena/Ulster)
17 - Ryan Furness (Worcester Warriors/Exile)
18 - Adam Boland (Lansdowne/ Connacht)
19 - Sean McCarthy (Shannon/Munster)
20 - Josh Van Der Flier (UCD/Leinster)
21 - John Creighton (Malone /Ulster)
22 - Eogháin Quinn (Lansdowne/ Leinster)
23 - Darren Sweetnam (UCC/Munster)

The 23 U20 team members come from 13 different clubs. Most come from Mike Ruddocks club, Lansdowne. Coincidence?

5 Lansdowne
4 UCD
3 Malone
2 Dolphin
1 Bucc
1 Ballynahinch
1 Shannon
1 UCC
1 Corinthians
1 Belfast Harlequins
1 Ballymena
1 Worchester
1 Newcastle

So is Tom Daly going to make a splash?

profitius wrote:The 23 U20 team members come from 13 different clubs. Most come from Mike Ruddocks club, Lansdowne. Coincidence?

5 Lansdowne
4 UCD
3 Malone
2 Dolphin
1 Bucc
1 Ballynahinch
1 Shannon
1 UCC
1 Corinthians
1 Belfast Harlequins
1 Ballymena
1 Worchester
1 Newcastle

Well Lansdowne have been by far the best team in the AIL this season so its no great surprise that a lot of the squad play for Lansdowne

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

profitius wrote:The 23 U20 team members come from 13 different clubs. Most come from Mike Ruddocks club, Lansdowne. Coincidence?

5 Lansdowne
4 UCD
3 Malone
2 Dolphin
1 Bucc
1 Ballynahinch
1 Shannon
1 UCC
1 Corinthians
1 Belfast Harlequins
1 Ballymena
1 Worchester
1 Newcastle

Well Lansdowne have been by far the best team in the AIL this season so its no great surprise that a lot of the squad play for Lansdowne

To put it in perspective, theres more from Lansdowne than there are from Munster in the squad!

Ireland will be without their two best backs will they not? Both starting for Ulster against the Ospreys.

Morgannwg wrote:Ireland will be without their two best backs will they not? Both starting for Ulster against the Ospreys.

Olding and...?

Henshaw started for the Irish Wolfhounds the week before last, so he's pretty handy. And McGrath is a fine player.

Mickado wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:Ireland will be without their two best backs will they not? Both starting for Ulster against the Ospreys.

Olding and...?

Henshaw started for the Irish Wolfhounds the week before last, so he's pretty handy. And McGrath is a fine player.

I can only think of Ulster center Chris Farrell but he is out for the season. Actually Ireland have a big injury list especially with Leinster players.

Anyone got a link for this?

profitius wrote:

Mickado wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:Ireland will be without their two best backs will they not? Both starting for Ulster against the Ospreys.

Olding and...?

Henshaw started for the Irish Wolfhounds the week before last, so he's pretty handy. And McGrath is a fine player.

I can only think of Ulster center Chris Farrell but he is out for the season. Actually Ireland have a big injury list especially with Leinster players.

Adam Byrne.

0-3 England 7 mins gone

Red card for Moriarty for flipping Mcgrath on his head

What an idiot and should get a hefty ban

What was the red card for, a spear tackle?

My stream is dreadful, what happened?

McGrath was at the back of a ruck getting the ball out and Moriarty came around the ruck and lifted Mcgrath up and spun him onto his head.

Definite red, McGrath looked hurt but hes back up now.

Moriarty looked gutted with himself going off

Straight in front of the ref, McGrath doesn't even have the ball and he lifts him actually readjusts to get a better grip, flips him and drives him down ..

Golden wrote:McGrath was at the back of a ruck getting the ball out and Moriarty came around the ruck and lifted Mcgrath up and spun him on his head.

Definite red, McGrath looked hurt but hes back up now.

Moriarty looked gutted with himself going off

Gutted that he hadn't broken McGraths neck?

DOD wrote:

Golden wrote:McGrath was at the back of a ruck getting the ball out and Moriarty came around the ruck and lifted Mcgrath up and spun him on his head.

Definite red, McGrath looked hurt but hes back up now.

Moriarty looked gutted with himself going off

Gutted that he hadn't broken McGraths neck?

Well i wouldnt like to presuppose his motivation for looking upset.

3-9 to England according to twitter, still the 18th minute on my stream. Useless.

Our boys are getting battered. Hopefully Ruddock will sort them out at half time.

Still dont understand why Henshaw is playing at this level.

He just picked up a yellow card for taking a man out of the air. 14 men against 13 here.

Is it still 6-15? It seems a great effort from the English lads considering they've been a man down for so long.

Cumbrian wrote:Is it still 6-15? It seems a great effort from the English lads considering they've been a man down for so long.

There is a big gulf in class tbh. England are just so good at this level.

9-15 now. England get a yellow to make it 13 players each.

Jeez, has it been a dirty game or has the ref been picky?

Wow can someone give a breakdown of the cards I'm struggling tp keep up.

Moriarty red, Stooke binned. You can take the boys out of Gloucester...

Well there was the red card in the first half but apart from that I dont think there was anything dirty.

Henshaw saw a yellow for taking a man out in the air. The other two yellows (one a piece) were for the same offence but i cant remember what it was. Just remember the commentator pointing out the refs consistency.

16-15 to ireland now. 10 seconds left