'Fearless, brave': From National One to a first England U20s start

England age-grade boss Mark Mapletoft has saluted the recent rapid rise of George Makepeace-Cubitt in going from National League One full-back to starting for his country’s U20s at No10 in Friday night’s Six Nations title fight in France.

It was ahead of the round two match at home to Wales in Bath when Makepeace-Cubitt came in from the cold of English third-tier rugby to link up with an international squad made up of only Gallagher Premiership youngsters and the Racing 92-attached Junior Kpoku.

He wasn’t at all overawed by the experience and his three appearances off the bench have now paved the way for his final-round selection as the starting out-half this weekend in Pau, a match that England head into sitting on top of the table one point ahead of Ireland who host Scotland in Cork.

Mapletoft quipped last month that he didn’t know Makepeace-Cubitt until he turned up in England camp to play in the championship after a few early injuries were sustained.

However, he has now admitted that this was a cheeky description, that he did know of the youngster who was part of the London Irish set-up that folded last year with the club’s unfortunate financial demise.

Makepeace-Cubitt has since gone back to his minis club Rams, turning out for them in National One, and Mapletoft described the youngster's selection to start for England U20s in a title decider as an excellent example of someone who continued to believe in himself away from the age-grade pathway despite a succession of setbacks.

“I was a bit tongue in cheek when I said I never heard of him, I clearly had heard of him having worked in the U18s,” explained Mapletoft to RugbyPass. “He and I have had a laugh about this throughout the time he has been in. I first watched him play for London Irish in an academy match U18s against Gloucester.

“He played so well; we used to do across-the-round player of the week which he won back in December 2021 or January 2022. I have known about George for a while. He has had an incredible mixed bag of fortune in the intervening period.

“He was contracted by Irish. He went on loan playing in National League (Two East with Barnes). The Irish story has been well advertised. He has gone back to his junior club Rams. He has had a shoulder injury. He has got back to playing pre-Christmas. He has had a concussion.

"He has finally strung some games together for Rams, who are going well in National One, and is probably playing at a similar level to a lot of the (England U20s) backs – and I just thought he deserved a chance.

“Alan (Dickens) had him in the U19s at the back end of last year. He has not never played for England before. We know a lot about him but really we kind of felt he had been lost to the game potentially, but he has shown incredible resilience to get back to where he was.

“He actually said to me he was genuinely hoping he would get the call at some point if he got back playing to the level he felt he could.

"Just credit to him: he has come in, has been fearless, has been brave, has slotted well in. He did a brilliant presentation to the lads on attack yesterday [Tuesday] which I have seen senior pros struggle with. Listen, I can’t give him enough credit.

“Hopefully the message is the pathway is what it is. People automatically assume that because you are not contracted to a club or that opportunity passes you by, then that is your time gone and it’s far from it.

“We have had Max Blinkhorn called in this year from Nottingham Uni, who unfortunately didn’t pick up a club when Wasps went under.

"With only 10 Premiership clubs now and less opportunity potentially, not everybody is going to get that contract at 18, and it [these stories] is a really good advert for just not giving up and showing that resilience and mental fortitude to stay with it and, if you believe in yourself, who knows what can happen.”

The promotion of Makepeace-Cubitt into the England U20s starting team at the expense of the benched Josh Bellamy is one of four changes made by Mapletoft to face the French following last Friday’s dramatic 32-all draw with Ireland at The Rec.

The other backline change sees the return of Ioan Jones at full-back with Ben Redshaw switching to the left wing and Alex Wills missing out. Another first-time starter is James Isaacs, who is chosen as hooker with Jacob Oliver moving to the bench.

He is joined there among the replacements by Olamide Sodeke, who has given up his starting pace at lock to Joe Bailey. Regarding the benching of Sodeke, Mapletoft explained: “We have mixed and matched a little bit where we have had to and at the same time we have often been forced into a lot of changes due to injury and illness. There is a lot of illness going around.

“Talking to (Ireland coach) Richie Murphy before the game last week, their lads there has been a lot of virus going around their group as well. Our job really – and I have been at pains to stress this – is yes, we have got a chance to win the Six Nations but ultimately this is a development programme and we want to put ourselves in the best possible position to help these lads in their development.

“This week Joe and Junior (Kpoku) get the opportunity to go in the second row together and I have no doubt Olamide will make a huge impact off the bench.

"It’s great learning for the lads to play tournament rugby because the same thing will happen in the World Cup – you can’t field the same team in all five rounds otherwise you’d probably be playing with six players at the end of it.

“There is a little preparation around that and combinations and players that we feel we want to start the game with and players we want to finish the game with. We know to get a positive outcome from the game we need to be competitive through the 80 minutes so we need to make sure we are.”