England U20 EPS Squad 2017/18

[francoisfou]

The number 8 was quality and they have trevor brennan's kid at lock I think.

Yes,and Daniel Brennan is TB's boy - and a biggun too! He's leaving Toulouse and going to play for Montpellier next season.

Listen to this post match interview with him and see if there's a hint of a French accent!!

You’ll know better than me. There is definitely a Northern twang. Probably more Bretagne than Parisian.

Closer to Athlone for me!!

[Puja]

England U20s v France JWC final 6pm (on ITV4)

15. Tom Parton (London Irish)
14. Gabriel Ibitoye (Harlequins)
13. Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints)
12. Tom Hardwick (Leicester Tigers)
11. Jordan Olowofela (Leicester Tigers)
10. Marcus Smith (Harlequins)
9. Ben White (Leicester Tigers)
1. Alex Seville (Gloucester Rugby)
2. Henry Walker (Gloucester Rugby)
3. Ehren Painter (Northampton Saints)
4. Joel Kpoku (Saracens)
5. James Scott (Worcester Warriors)
6. Ted Hill (Worcester Warriors)
7. Ben Curry – captain (Sale Sharks)
8. Josh Basham (London Irish)

Replacements
16. Beck Cutting (Worcester Warriors)
17. Ciaran Knight (Gloucester Rugby)
18. Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
19. Tom Willis (Wasps)
20. Aaron Hinkley (Gloucester Rugby)
21. Rory Brand (London Irish)
22. James Grayson (Northampton Saints)
23. Will Butler (Worcester Warriors)

Painter starts ahead of Heyes and Cutting on bench for Ogrhe.
Difficult game for our lads but we do have game winners in the backs if we can get a foothold up front.

Two Cambridge RUFC lads and one from my old school in the squad, woo hoo.

Might as well have sent Isiekwe over to help out tbh.

And while Curry, Hill, Hinkley, and Willis are more than serviceable, you've got to wonder what the hell Ben Earl is achieving by being in South Africa.

Puja

[Renniks]

I'd forgotten Earl was in SA - no-one's even hinted at him being near the match day 23, even with wholesale changes being a possibility!

[Peej]

Is he not an apprentice player?

[Puja]

Is he not an apprentice player?

Nope, full-time in the squad. And yet BCurry is in France, despite playing 10x as many Premiership minutes this season.

Puja

[fivepointer]

SA beat NZ 40-30 in the 3rd/4th play off game. Boks came back strong in the 2nd half much like they did against us.

[Digby]

France open a 3-0 lead

France had hands on the floor and were very low to the floor forcing that turnover, but we still couldn't support our own ball and gave the ref a chance to make that call

[Digby]

Still not sure why going back in the scrum is a penalty, but that suggests a problem no matter my dislike of scrum officiating

[Mellsblue]

Uh oh

[16th man]

Thats a monstrous scrum again. If they get the nudge on, just the sheer size of their pack means they absolutely destroy you.

[Mellsblue]

Dingwall knows how to tackle!!

The France 14 doesn’t. That’s a yellow, surely.

[padprop]

How can someone who was clearly going for the ball in the all blacks france game get a red and you get nothing for intentionally tackling someone in the air?

The rulings remain rediculous.

[16th man]

Hmm. May not be a card, but it's worth at least a chat with the guy. Pretty blase attitude to a ridiculously dangerous challenge by the ref.

[Digby]

Hmm, harsh on England, no idea how he's on his feet there

[16th man]

That's an amazing bit of breakdown work by their 7.

[padprop]

Shouldn't have been a card, just comparing it to the all blacks incident which had no attempt to hit the player in the air

[16th man]

Looked a bit like an early hit on the guy about to take the offload from Smith.

We're shifting their big units around though, so hopefully that will pay off later on.

[Digby]

Oh for the love of, the scrum is won,it's a restart, play on. There's no need to go anywhere near a scrum penalty

[16th man]

The refs had a shocker there. The tackle was clearly already made.

[Mellsblue]

That’s bs. Curry was the tackler. The French player was on his knees, and the tackle is therefore complete, when our 2 engaged.

[16th man]

That’s bs. Curry was the tackler. The French player was on his knees, and the tackle is therefore complete, when our 2 engaged.

You expect a bit of home town reffing at this level but there's been several clear ones now.

[Digby]

That's not late and it's not no arms

[padprop]

That tackle is completely fine

[Mellsblue]

The French no12 has obviously been to the Morgan Parra school of acting. There were arms in that tackle.

[Digby]

The high tackle was high, but it's worrying the ref thinks that late, and the TMO thinks it late too, how?