England U20 EPS Squad 2017/18

[Banquo]

Who does Ben white play for? Looks a good prospect too

That's the Leicester scrum half that I was saying hadn't looked hugely impressive this 6N earlier in the thread. Good to hear he's turning in a performance.

Puja

Great pace, but his passing not so much, and also decisions and kicking, erm variable. Very patchy performance, took em too long to realise we had them comfortably on the outside, instead we just kept kicking it away. Good win though after some hideous early errors.

[Mellsblue]

Nah it’s been pretty good so far!

Ibitoye looks the real deal, Earl has something about him too

Ibitoye is pure class.

And, yes, Earl is going to be one to keep any eye.

Probably due to his 3 games for Bedford this season.

[fivepointer]

Looked very good once we settled down. There's a lot of talent in this team but they are maddeningly inconsistent!

Earl and Ibitoye the picks but i liked the work of Basham and Street up front. Walker is terrific in the loose but his throwing is seriously unreliable. Thought Hardwick stood out too.

Plenty to do for the JWC but this squad does have a lot of potential.

[Bloggs]

I liked Hardwick because his hairline was higher than mine at an u20 level!

[twitchy]

Earle seems to constantly get the plaudits. I was expecting moore to have more of an impact given the buzz. Not as close to a prem starting spot after all?

[Tigersman]

I liked Hardwick because his hairline was higher than mine at an u20 level!

It's his prop genes.

[fivepointer]

Extra game announced against SA on 11 May.

England U20s are to play their South Africa counterparts at Sixways Stadium on Friday 11 May (KO 7.30pm) ahead of the World Rugby U20 Championship in France.

The match against the Junior Springboks, which will be streamed live on englandrugby.com, takes place at the home of Worcester Warriors and will be crucial preparation for England ahead of the tournament in France (30 May-17 June).

http://www.englandrugby.com/news/englan ... 85223296=1

[Tigersman]

Do we normally have a warm game in the U20's?

Might try to get to that.

[fivepointer]

England U20s head coach Steve Bates has named his side to face the Junior Springboks on Friday (KO 7.30pm BST) at Worcester’s Sixways Stadium (live on englandrugby.com and FreeSports - Sky channel 422 or Freeview channel 95).

15. Tom Parton (London Irish)
14. Tom Seabrook (Gloucester Rugby)
13. Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors)
12. Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints)
11. Ben Loader (London Irish)
10. James Grayson (Northampton Saints)
9. Ben White capt (Leicester Tigers)
1. Alex Seville (Gloucester Rugby)
2. Gabriel Oghre (Wasps)
3. Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
4. Joel Kpoku (Saracens)
5. James Scott (Worcester Warriors)
6. Ted Hill (Worcester Warriors)
7. Aaron Hinkley (Gloucester Rugby)
8. Tom Willis (Wasps)

Replacements

16. Henry Walker (Gloucester Rugby)
17. Toby Trinder (Northampton Saints)
18. Ehren Painter (Northampton Saints)
19. Sam Lewis (Leicester Tigers)
20. Josh Basham (London Irish)
21. Rory Brand (London Irish)
22. Sam Morley (Exeter Chiefs)
23. Luke James (Sale Sharks)

Travelling reserves: Beck Cutting (Worcester Warriors), Ciaran Knight (Gloucester Rugby), Joe Snow (Exeter Chiefs), Cadan Murley (Harlequins).

[Puja]

That is a good, if slightly young, team. Good to see it's on television as well; will look forward to it!

Puja

[Stom]

Sad there's not 1 Quin

[Mellsblue]

I was going to say neither have Bath.......

[Tigersman]

Ibitoye will be in the main team i imagine.

[Which Tyler]

I was going to say neither have Bath.......

Ahem - there's 4 Bath players there thanks.

11, 15, 20 & 21

[Mellsblue]

I was going to say neither have Bath.......

Ahem - there's 4 Bath players there thanks.

11, 15, 20 & 21

That was that was the point of my (obviously terrible) joke

[Puja]

It was a fun game for a bit, but now South Africa have worked out that we can't defend their maul at all, so the game has been mostly them walking forwards for the past 15 minutes. Not helped by the fact that we are carrying on our proud U20s tradition of not having a functioning lineout (despite having three locks starting!) and so not only are we not challebging theirs, we can't win ours either.

I can't remember the last time we had the ball for more than a phase.

Puja

[Puja]

That was dire. Ben White's service is glacial, Grayson's kicking has varied from good to dire, our lineout stats are at about 33%, and we can't seem to stop South Africa's maul. SA aren't doing much, but frankly they don't have to.

Puja

[Oakboy]

Anybody know why we aren't playing in white?

[Tigersman]

That was dire. Ben White's service is glacial, Grayson's kicking has varied from good to dire, our lineout stats are at about 33%, and we can't seem to stop South Africa's maul. SA aren't doing much, but frankly they don't have to.

Puja

We look like a team that hasn't played together ever.
Kpoku seems to have been picked because he is massive but he doesn't use that size at all.

Parton and Loader keeping us in this creating a try from nothing.

[Tigersman]

Damn England lose against the head with Painter on.....

IMO him and Heyes are very good TH's so the problem must be somewhere else either the other 2 props or IMO the locks.

[Puja]

The difference between Brand's service and White's is night and day. He's just whipping the ball out, quickly and accurately. I really can't see what people see in White.

Puja

[Tigersman]

God, commentators trying to give england positives.

Literally no positives so far.
I mean it's understandable our top 7/8 U20's players are not playing pretty much but it's pretty crap.

[Tigersman]

Looks like the pack have woken up finally.

[Tigersman]

Looks like Englands forwards bench is alot stronger than SA forwards bench.

[fivepointer]

Struggling to find any positives from that. We were understandably a bit rusty, but some of our play was woeful, lacking in accuracy or any kind of fluency. Pretty brainless at times too.
A number of players with big reps produced very little of note.
Hopefully we'll go well at the JWC having got this out of our system.