1
Unbeaten England U20s change five for visit of title rivals Ireland
By Liam Heagney
Mark Mapletoft has made five changes to his starting England U20s XV for Friday night's crunch Six Nations age-grade clash with Ireland in Bath.
The English were 30-17 winners away to Scotland the last time out, but they have now bolstered their side with some recalls, enforced injury changes and positional switches to take on the Irish, who also go into the round four match with three wins from three so far.
There are two changes in personnel in the backline with Josh Bellamy taking over from the injured Rory Taylor at out-half while the promotion of Ben Waghorn from the bench back into the starting midfield has seen Ben Redshaw switch to full-back with Ioan Jones missing out.
In the pack, Jacob Oliver is promoted from the bench to take over from Craig Wright and the return of Olamide Sodeke and Junior Kpoku at lock has resulted in Joe Bailey missing out and skipper Finn Carnduff switching to blindside, with Zach Carr dropping to the bench.
England boss Mark Mapletoft said: “England and Ireland have had some battles in recent times and this fixture is one that I’m sure our fans have been anticipating since it was announced last year.
“The support we received in our last outing at The Rec was second to none, and the fact we are expecting an even bigger crowd this weekend only adds to what promises to be a memorable occasion.
“Ireland’s Richie Murphy is a coach I have great respect for. He and his staff have built a very impressive programme and we look forward to welcoming them this Friday to write another chapter.”
England U20s (vs Ireland, Friday)
15. Ben Redshaw (Newcastle Falcons, West Park Leeds RFC, 3 caps)
14. Toby Cousins (Northampton Saints, Bugbrooke RFC, 4 caps)
13. Ben Waghorn (Harlequins, Chipstead Rugby Club, 5 caps)
12. Sean Kerr (Harlequins, Effingham and Leatherhead RFC, 2 caps)
11. Alex Wills (Sale Sharks, Stourbridge Rugby, 6 caps)
10. Josh Bellamy (Harlequins, Rosslyn Park, 2 caps)
9. Archie McParland (Northampton Saints, Ruthin RFC, 2 caps)
1. Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks, Broadstreet RFC, 12 caps)
2. Jacob Oliver (Newcastle Falcons, Barnard Castle Rugby Club, 3 caps)
3. Billy Sela (Bath Rugby, Royal Wootton Bassett RFC, 3 caps)
4. Olamide Sodeke (Saracens, Blackheath Rugby, 2 caps)
5. Junior Kpoku (Racing 92, Saracens Amateurs, 2 caps)
6. Finn Carnduff (c) (Leicester Tigers, Market Harborough RFC, 13 caps)
7. Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints, Banbury RFC, 3 caps)
8. Nathan Michelow (Saracens, Coopers Company and Coborn School, 8 caps)
Replacements:
16. James Isaacs (Saracens, Hemel Hempstead Camelot RFC, uncapped)
17. Scott Kirk (Bath Rugby, Michaelhouse College, 3 caps)
18. James Halliwell (Bristol Bears, Thornbury Broncos Rugby Club, 7 caps)
19. Zach Carr (Harlequins, Ironsides Rugby Club, 4 caps)
20. Kane James (Exeter Chiefs, St Peters RFC, 2 caps)
21. Ben Douglas (Newcastle Falcons, Northern Football Club, 3 caps)
22. George Makepeace-Cubitt (Rams RFC, Reading Abbey RFC, 2 caps)
23. Oli Spencer (Newcastle Falcons, Epping Rams Rugby, 2 caps)
Trending on RugbyPass
2
OTD – Declan Kidney takes step up into Test rugby
3
Stuart Hogg addresses rumours of rugby return
4
Nigel Owens has final say on URC's most controversial game
5
Latest Comments
One that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
Go to comments