RugbyRebels

Biting is a pretty despicable TBH. The only "extenuating circumstances" I can think of is when someone is putting their fingers in your mouth to move your head where you don't want it! (Or a non-bite, like someone smashing their forearm into your mouth, earning teeth marks with no bite necessary).

If he did this, then he's a bloody idiot, who should get more than 6 weeks IMO.

Hope the Sharks can sort this out.

Final game today (at 2.30pm) for 5th/6th place. Given the players we have, both this JWC and the preceding 6N's have been a touch disappointing. Be nice to finish off on a high.

England U20s v Wales U20s

15. Tom de Glanville (Bath Rugby)
14. Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints)
13. Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints) - captain
12. Luke James (Sale Sharks)
11. Josh Hodge (Newcastle Falcons)
10. Manu Vunipola (Saracens)
9. Sam Maunder (Exeter Chiefs)
1. James Kenny (Exeter Chiefs)
2. Will Capon (Bristol Bears)
3. Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
4. Joel Kpoku (Saracens)
5. Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
6. Ted Hill (Worcester Warriors)
7. Aaron Hinkley (Gloucester Rugby)
8. Tom Willis (Wasps Rugby)

Replacements
16. Nic Dolly (Sale Sharks)
17. Olly Adkins (Gloucester Rugby)
18. Alfie Petch (Exeter Chiefs)
19. Kai Owen (Worcester Warriors)
20. Rusiate Tuima (Exeter Chiefs)
21. Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs)
22. Ollie Fox (Yorkshire Carnegie)
23. Tom Seabrook (Gloucester Rugby)
24. Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish)
25. Connor Doherty (Sale Sharks)

Pleasing to finish with a win over Wales, but 5th is a poor return by our usual standards.

Some decent performances from Hodge and Hill in particular, but otherwise disappointing.

That said, but for Barbeary’s rush of blood, I think we probably would have beaten Ireland in the opening game and could well have been contesting a second final with France. Hey ho.

Bit harsh regarding the poor standards...we won 4 out of 5 matches ffs.

Just a bp stopped us from having a shout at the championship.

I think the lads did us proud. Lost to Ireland 26-42 in the group stage and rectified that with a 23-30 win in the knockout stages.

They also got to beat the Welsh team that beat them in the 6Ns, as well as thrashed Australia.

The format seems a bit fucked still. Ireland beat England, Wales beat NZ, NZ hammer Ireland and England hammer Wales.

Still think the boys did us proud.

Think its fair to say we were seldom the sum of our parts. We had our moments in all the games, particularly yesterdays 1st half when we were excellent, playing with a drive and fluency often lacking. Smith at FH would have elevated this team a notch or two, I think.
Willis, Hill, the locks and Hodge really stood out.
Of those still eligible next season Hodge is surely one to watch out for. Capstick, Tuima, Barbeary, Maunder, DeGlanvillle, Doherty, Sleightholme, Vunipola should be involved and will be better for the experience.
Of those graduating I expect big things from Hill and Willis. Kpoku should get lots of game time, as will Heyes. Redpath and Dingwall will be getting opportunities, while Capon looks like a player ready to step up.

kpoku and coles were the big players for england. I think we really missed a trick by not having smith at FH. Did he really need to play vs the barbarians? I think it's so important for young players being in youth tournaments.

He chose baabaas over jwc.

WaspInWales wrote:Bit harsh regarding the poor standards...we won 4 out of 5 matches ffs.

Just a bp stopped us from having a shout at the championship.

I think the lads did us proud. Lost to Ireland 26-42 in the group stage and rectified that with a 23-30 win in the knockout stages.

They also got to beat the Welsh team that beat them in the 6Ns, as well as thrashed Australia.

The format seems a bit fucked still. Ireland beat England, Wales beat NZ, NZ hammer Ireland and England hammer Wales.

Still think the boys did us proud.

I don’t think it’s harsh. For a team that has consistently finished 1st or 2nd finishing 5th, is poor. It would be like Exeter or Saracens missing out on the play-offs.

I did say that it could have been very different if we hadn’t played so much of the first game with 14 men, but by the same token, I don’t think we would have beaten Australia so comfortably had they not played almost all of that game with 14.

We were also very poor against Italy and it wouldn’t have been an unfair result if we had lost that game.

With all of that said, we were the highest points scorers in the tournament and Hodge topped the conversions and clean-breaks stats.

I think we did OK in adversity and got better across the tournament, but I agree with fivepointer - all too often we were less than the sum of our parts and frequently shot ourselves in the foot from a disciplinary POV.

FWIW, I totally agree on the format. It needs 16 teams to run fairly.

WaspInWales wrote:Bit harsh regarding the poor standards...we won 4 out of 5 matches ffs.

Just a bp stopped us from having a shout at the championship.

I think the lads did us proud. Lost to Ireland 26-42 in the group stage and rectified that with a 23-30 win in the knockout stages.

They also got to beat the Welsh team that beat them in the 6Ns, as well as thrashed Australia.

The format seems a bit fucked still. Ireland beat England, Wales beat NZ, NZ hammer Ireland and England hammer Wales.

Still think the boys did us proud.

One of those game was limping past Italy, where we probably deserved to lose. Yes, a win is a win, but that was the missing bonus point that cost us.

Puja

Some interesting stats there.

It suggest that, on the whole, our discipline wasn’t too bad. It’s just that a higher proportion of our infringements resulted in costly cards.

Excellent and very fair assessment of the players by Alex Shaw - https://www.rugbypass.com/news/england- ... yer-review

Mentions few names that might come into the squad next season.

Not exactly of its time but a very promising member of a previous u20 team, Howard Packman, is now playing for North Otago in the Ranfurly Shield.