What England A selection could do for 'powerful athlete' Tarek Haffar

Sam Vesty is hoping that the upcoming England A game versus Portugal will be an invaluable experience for young Northampton prop Tarek Haffar.

Three Saints players – front-rower Haffar, Test-capped back-rower Tom Pearson and winger Ollie Sleightholme – were named last Thursday in the 27-strong international squad for the February 25 fixture at Leicester.

The match will be England’s first outing at A team level since 2016 when they toured South Africa as the Saxons.

Northampton head coach Vesty will be George Skivington’s attack coach and he is especially interested in what the 22-year-old loosehead can do at representative level.

It was last summer when the Saints snapped up the 6ft, 115kg prop from the collapsed London Irish.

Despite only making a single start so far in his half-dozen club appearances this season, his recently signed contract extension has been followed by his inclusion in the England A squad as one of two looseheads for next weekend’s game.

“This should open Tarek’s eyes certainly,” reckoned Vesty about the former England U20s front-rower who made two starts in 10 London Irish appearances during his breakthrough 2022/23 season.

“He is a really powerful athlete, he is diligent with what he does and I’m hoping it is a really great experience for him to go and see how the world is different out there and how other teams do things differently.

“To be fair, Tarek has been at London Irish as well so he has a different mindset but it’s really important that you go and see different attack coaches, different defence coaches, different players, how they react to different things – and it’s such a good learning environment because of that.

“Tarek will grow from this experience and hopefully he will get on and show his game which is absolute power in the collisions. Hopefully, he gets a chance to show that but he will learn a lot more off the pitch as well.”

The England A squad of 27 will assemble on Tuesday at Loughborough University.

Its depth will be added to that evening as the plan is for England first-team boss Steve Borthwick to allow some players who don’t make his match day 23 for the Guinness Six Nations game versus Scotland to drop down into Skivington’s squad.

England A squad (vs Portugal):

Loosehead (2): Fin Baxter (Harlequins), Tarek Haffar (Northampton);

Hooker (3): Jamie Blamire (Newcastle), Sam Riley (Harlequins), Seb Blake (Gloucester);

Tighthead (2): Josh Iosefa Scott (Exeter), James Harper (Sale);

Lock (4): Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), Arthur Clark (Gloucester), Ben Bamber (Sale), Rusiate Tuima (Exeter);

Back row (5): Tom Pearson (Northampton), Guy Pepper (Newcastle), Alfie Barbeary (Bath), Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs), Jack Clement (Gloucester);

Scrum-half (2): Caolan Englefield (Gloucester), Harry Randall (Bristol);

Out-half (2): Charlie Atkinson (Gloucester), Jamie Shillcock (Leicester);

Centre (2): Oliver Hartley (Saracens), Rekeiti Ma’asi-White (Sale);

Wing (3): Oliver Sleightholme (Northampton), Cadan Murley (Harlequins), Ollie Hassell-Collins (Leicester);

Full-back (2): Josh Hodge (Exeter), Sam Harris (Bath).