England U20 vs. FranceU20's

First topic message reminder :

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

Cumbrian wrote:
It's odd alright, it's not like there aren't any potentially promising hookers at this level either come to think of it. Nathan Morris notwithstanding there is also Scott Spurling who has had premiership experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aSXg2AHB4

I suppose they've spotted something in Cowan-Dickie that has made them believe he could turn into a very special number hooker. It's a position that up until recently we have lacked significant depth at international level, if Youngs and/or Hartley got injured (not beyond the realm s of possibility) we'd be back in the mire.

Ok, but if LCD is a hooker then don't start him alongside Morris, have one of them on the bench. How do you sensibly use 3 props on the bench? Wilson replaces Sinkler, one replaces Morris so LCD moves to hooker, and the third?

The U20 selections have been weird for a while. I'm glad Hunter is moving on.

Do you know who'll be the new coach and what the development path is for age grade coaches?

Are they Prem or Championship coaches that are given some international experience or guys from different backgrounds who are brought in? And are the coaches expected to work their way through the age grades or just dip in and out?

On the hooker front England'd under 18 hooker Harry Thacker scored a hattrick in the under 18s league last weekend and is a converted.... wait for it .... fly half. Do any hookers actually hooker from a young age these days or do we just convert where and when (Harry,s dad Troy played hooker for Tigers before him btw).

Whatever happened to Spurling? Him and George have dropped off the face of the earth this season.

England U20s hammered France U20s 40-10 at Sixways on Saturday night with skipper Jack Clifford bagging a hat-trick.

Two penalties from Henry Slade had put England into a 6-3 lead at the break and it was the home side who got the first five-pointer on the board thanks to a penalty try in the second-half. But despite being down to 14 men, with Etienne Dussartre in the bin, France pulled it back to 16-10 with Gabriel Lacroix going over.

That proved to be their final score of the match with Clifford running in a hat-trick and winger Henry Purdy also scoring to ensure that the home team bounced back from their round two loss to Ireland in style.


Sounds like England still have a good team at this level. I did expect a big win though, France U20s this semester are poor. I think Wales need to give Scotland a good thrashing before we can think about beating England and sealing the slam. Scotland look pretty big up front so it'll be tough to beat them, hopefully guys like Patchell and I Jones will be in for these two games.

There's some highlights on the RFU website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFTDZUxNPYY&feature=youtube_gdata_player