Getting to Know: England U20s No8 Nathan Michelow

It’s been quite the 2024 adventure for England under Mark Mapletoft, winning the age-grade Six Nations and then clinching top spot in Pool C on Tuesday night at the World Rugby U20 Championship.

One of the standouts has been Nathan Michelow, who has a famous sporting lineage. Mum Amanda Brown played tennis at Wimbledon and was on the pro circuit in the early 1980s, uncle Kenny played football for West Ham United around the same time while granddad Ken was a 1964 FA Cup winner in a Hammers team with Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst.

A knock prevented Michelow from togging out for the middle game versus Fiji but he was in the thick of it against southern hemisphere heavyweight duo Argentina and South Africa, registering a combined total of 42 carries and 35 tackles.

Those are immense figures and he will be looking to impress again this Sunday when England tackle Ireland in the semi-finals at the iconic home of the Stormers in the heart of Cape Town.

Michelow was part of the class of 2023 that finished in fourth place at the Championship, but they appear to be a far more potent squad a year on and the brotherhood they have nurtured has been evident in Embedded, the RugbyPass TV documentary series taking fans behind the scenes during their campaign in South Africa.

England go into the last four believing they can finally knock over the Irish following two successive draws against them, the most recent coming 18 weeks ago when it finished 32-all at Bath in the Six Nations.

In the lead-up to this latest clash, Michelow has taken the RugbyPass Getting to Know Q&A, with his answers featuring Lawrence Dallaglio, starting out at loosehead, Setanta College and Biggie:

THE BASICS

Born: May 16, 2004;

Joined England age-grade: Italy when I was U18s. It was the year after covid.

Club: Saracens;

Height: 6ft 3;

Weight: 109kg;

Position: No8;

Boots: Adidas or Asics. I like the new one, the RS15 are the ones I am wearing at the moment;

Gumshield: Just whatever they have given me really;

Headgear: Never worn headgear;

School: Coopers, and Sutton Valence after that.

RATE YOURSELF (out of 100)

Pace: 77, 78;

Passing: Off the right I’ll give it a 65, off the left maybe not so high;

Tackling: Put that at 90. 

THE PAST

My favourite England player of all time is… I really like Lawrence Dallaglio;

Favourite try I have ever scored is… Either Fiji here last year or a try I scored for Saracens against Scarlets;

A rugby memory that makes me smile is… Premiership debut, definitely.

The moment I realised I could make it is… Probably Premiership debut;

One piece of advice I would give to my younger self is… Don’t get caught up too much in everything, just enjoy the moment without worrying too much about what is going to happen too much afterwards;

My best subject in school was… Oh, either psychology or PE;

Growing up, my position was… The very first position I played was loosehead prop and then I slowly moved my way back, dabbled in centres and then got told no, too big to go there, go in the back row. Probably about year eight, year nine, that was when I found back row as my real position. But yeah, first position was loosehead prop and that was criminal. It was my dad, he used to play as a prop and he tried making me into it. I took one look at it and not a chance;

The coach who has most impacted my game is… From a young age, from schoolboy, my two school coaches at Coopers, Mr Marshall and Mr Holt, were very influential for me but then when I got into Sarries academy, Juan Figallo, he has kind of been with me since I was about 16 and growing up with him as my coach the last few years has been really nice and he is brilliant.

THE PRESENT

My best attributes on the field are… Probably my carrying and my impact and the impacts I can make in defence;

One thing I’m doing to improve my education is… I am studying with Setanta College online at the moment about sports performance, so I have been doing the first year there and I am going to extend it and do another few courses, a conditioning one as well;

My favourite current England player is… It’s weird because Chandler (Cunningham-South), I played with him and it’s brilliant seeing him do so well, and Ben Earl, playing with him at the club. But Ollie Lawrence or Henry Slade at the moment, watching them two play has been really exciting so probably them two to watch anyway;

My favourite YouTuber is… I listen to a couple of podcasts, like the odd Joe Rogan podcast when I can, but I am not really on YouTube;

My hardest working teammate is… Finn Carnduff;

My most skilful teammate is… Ollie Allan or Josh Bellamy;

My favourite training drill is… I like we do this defensive drill where it’s like hit a tube, up and through, back and tackle. I quite like doing that, it’s fun;

My favourite music artist is… I like Biggie and a bit of the ’90s rap stuff but I also quite like my house music, but I’d say Biggie.

THE FUTURE

A player who could go all the way is… Finn again, definitely;

If I could play with anyone, I would like to play with… I’d love to have played with Dan Carter, that would have been unbelievable;

I will be happy with my career if I… Probably not like anything tangible, it’s more just how far could I have taken myself and did I make the most of every opportunity I get. If that means I get 10 games or 200 games, whatever it is, as long as I have given it everything I’d be happy with that;

One thing I want to add to my game is… Probably I want to make myself a little more dynamic. I have got a good pre-season block after this to properly get after, so that is something that I will look to do;

If I could play in any other country, I would play in… Either France or New Zealand;

One person I want to meet is… Just anyone? These questions get you thinking. I’d love to meet Roger Federer, especially as I quite enjoy my tennis and I want to know what he is like as a person and kind of how he ticks. It would be good to pick his brain;

One trophy I would love to win is… This U20s one is big but I’d love to win a Premiership at some point in my life.

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