U18 Development Squad

[Timbo]

Lost 28-5.

Epaminondas Pules is this not such a great crop? Given they also lost comprehensively to Italy.

A mix. Not quite at the heights of the last few years in terms of overall talent, but there's still some very good players coming through. We've had 2/3 years of real strength at age grade level in terms of the players, if not always the results.

I was randomly looking at the England 20’s results from 2019 the other day and it is absurd that they didn’t do better than 3rd in the 6 Nations and 5th in the JWC. Albeit there was the usual mix and match stuff during the 6N’s and some players unavailable for the JWC, but still they should have done way better. The quality and breadth of talent is up there as one of our best age group years ever imo;

Barbeary, Ted Hill, Tom Willis, Alex Coles, Joe Hayes, Kpoku, Dingwall, Redpath, Sleightholme, Ollie Lawrence, Arron Reed, De Glanville, Josh Hodge, Maunder, Dolly, Capon, Capstick, Murley…even Marcus Smith played a few games in the 6 nations. And a fair few others that are now regular-ish prem players. Already 6 senior internationals out of that lot, and in a few years could easily be 10+.

[Mr Mwenda]

I realise they're not that uncommon names but are Bracken and Greenwood continuing this English tendency to develop only the sons of former internationals?

[fivepointer]

England U18 head coach Jonathan Pendlebury has named a squad to take part in the U18 Six Nations Festival in France.
The festival takes place at the FFR National Centre, Marcoussis, between Saturday 9 and Sunday 17 April, and involves all Six Nations teams. They play three 70-minute matches each.

England take on Wales in their first game, having recently recorded a 37-20 win over them, before facing Italy and then Scotland.

"We were pleased with the way the team played against Wales recently and I’m sure this group will take a lot from that as they head into the first game of the festival," said Pendlebury.

"This will be a great opportunity for the group to spend ten days together, to cement relationships, learn from one another and take something from the experience that they can put into practice either back at their club or when they next meet in future England age group and representative environments and traveling or touring abroad.

"The squad is really looking forward to the festival which is able to take place for the first time since the pandemic began. Events such as these are a really important development experience for players at this age and we’re really pleased it’s able to take place again."

ENGLAND'S FIXTURES
Saturday 9 April - Wales v England - KO: 14.20
Wednesday 13 April - Italy v England - KO: 16.40
Sunday 17 April - England v Scotland - KO: 13.35

ENGLAND U18 SQUAD
Ollie Allan (London Irish, Bishop Wand School)
Joe Bailey (Exeter Chiefs, Exeter College)
Conor Byrne (Harlequins, Trinity College)
Finn Carnduff (Leicester Tigers, Leicester Grammar School)
Zach Carr (Harlequins, Dulwich College)
Ethan Clarke (Harlequins, Worthing College)
Luke Coulston (Newcastle Falcons, Gosforth Academy)
Toby Cousins (Northampton Saints, Oakham School)
Connor Cross (London Irish, Hampton School)
Harvey Cuckson (Worcester Warriors, Ellesmere College)
Ben Douglas (Newcastle Falcons, Gosforth Academy)
Will Glister (Wasps, City of Oxford College)
Arthur Green (Bath Rugby, Sherborne School)
Jimmy Halliwell (Bristol Bears, Colston's School)
Ioan Jones (Gloucester Rugby, Dean Close School)
George Loose (Leicester Tigers, Gresham's School)
Morgan Meredith (Leicester Tigers, Brooksby Melton College)
Ben Motamed (Sale Sharks, Manchester Grammar School)
Paddy Pearce (Bristol Bears, Colston's School)
Mike Rewcastle (Newcastle Falcons, Gosforth Academy)
Epi Rokodrava (Wasps, City of Oxford College)
Charlie Smith (Newcastle Falcons, Dame Allans)
Nick Tarr (Northampton Saints, Mark Rutherford School)
Rory Taylor (London Irish, Wellington College)
Tristan Woodman (Sale Sharks, AKS Lytham)
Craig Wright (Northampton Saints, Felsted School)

[Timbo]

England u18’s won 33-14 against Wales this afternoon.

[fivepointer]

Replay is available on Youtube -

Halliwell, our TH, is a BIIIIGGGG unit who can play. Carnduff at 6 looks a good player.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Live streams available for today and Sunday: https://www.englandrugby.com/news/artic ... s-festival

[Epaminondas Pules]

England win 28 v 21

[Slater582]

Details on who started this trio of games.

V Wales

1. Ethan Clarke 2. Craig Wright 3. Jimmy Halliwell 4. Harvey Cuckson 5. Luke Coulston 6. Finn Carnduff 7. Tristan Woodman 8. Arthur Green

9. Ollie Allan 10. Rory Taylor 11. Will Glister 12. Connor Cross 13. George Loose 14. Epi Rokodrava 15. Conor Byrne

16. Charlie Smith 17. Mike Rewcastle 18. Nick Tarr 19. Paddy Pearce 20. Joe Bailey 21. Zach Carr 22. Ben Douglas 23. Morgan Meredith 24. Ben Motamed 25. Toby Cousins 26. Ioan Jones

Tries were scored by Wright (2), Carnduff, Cross & Smith. 3 points from Taylor & five from Meredith.

V Italy

1. Mike Rewcastle 2. Charlie Smith 3. Jimmy Halliwell 4. Harvey Cuckson 5. Joe Bailey 6. Finn Carnduff 7. Tristan Woodman 8. Arthur Green

9. Ben Douglas 10. Morgan Meredith 11. Toby Cousins 12. Ben Motamed 13. George Loose 14. Epi Rokodrava 15. Ioan Jones

16. Craig Wright 17. Ethan Clarke 18. Nick Tarr 19. Paddy Pearce 20. Luke Coulston 21. Zach Carr 22. Ollie Allan 23. Rory Taylor 24. Connor Cross 25. Will Glister 26. Conor Byrne

Tries from Cuckson, Jones, Meredith & Woodman. All converted by Meredith.

v Scotland

1. Ethan Clarke 2. Craig Wright 3. Nick Tarr 4. Paddy Pearce 5. Luke Coulston 6. Finn Carnduff 7. Tristan Woodman 8. Zach Carr

9. Ben Douglas 10. Morgan Meredith 11. Toby Cousins 12. Ben Motamed 13. Connor Cross 14. Will Glister 15. Ioan Jones

16. Charlie Smith 17. Mike Rewcastle 18. Jimmy Halliwell 19. Harvey Cuckson 20. Joe Bailey 21. Arthur Green 22. Ollie Allan 23. Conor Byrne 24. George Loose 25. Epi Rokodrava 26. Rory Taylor

Tries from Cousins & Douglas. Eight points from Meredith who looked a very reliable kicker.

The lock Harvey Cuckson, apparently his work ons were to be a lot more assertive and dominant.

As I recall he is a product of the Mold academy. Perhaps he plays for England as he attends an English school.


Anyway England scraped another close win 18-15 in the last game against Scotland. Undefeated at this tournament but then they didn't have to play Ireland or hosts France who seem to have very talented sides.

Does anyone know if the U18 summer tours to South Africa are back on

[fivepointer]

Wasnt bowled over with what i saw tbh. Young lads i know and its all about development at this stage, but some of the play was disappointing. A few of the forwards looked pretty good, Carnduff, Woodman, the props looked fine but none of the backs left much of an impression on me.

[Raggs]

Rory Taylor come from my youth club, which is pretty cool.

[Gloskarlos]

There are one or two U17's players in that squad - the Glos player for one.

[Tigersman]

Will be interesting to see how Tigers manage all the forwards coming through.

Doing well so far TBF.

I think his name is Arnold our U17 openside is meant to be a handy looking player

[Epaminondas Pules]

U19s beat Italy 41 v 20 in Verona!

[Epaminondas Pules]

Wasnt bowled over with what i saw tbh. Young lads i know and its all about development at this stage, but some of the play was disappointing. A few of the forwards looked pretty good, Carnduff, Woodman, the props looked fine but none of the backs left much of an impression on me.

Ioan Jones looked very useful. Made the team of the tournament.

[Timbo]

Heard Ugo Monye bagging the lack of game time our u20’s are getting again. Would love to know the facts behind this, as it definitely seems to me that England age grade players play way more top level pro games than most/all other nations youngsters. The league is packed full of former England under 20 graduates playing regularly for their clubs.

[Raggs]

Heard Ugo Monye bagging the lack of game time our u20’s are getting again. Would love to know the facts behind this, as it definitely seems to me that England age grade players play way more top level pro games than most/all other nations youngsters. The league is packed full of former England under 20 graduates playing regularly for their clubs.

Much like those people clamouring for players to get into the England squad, they're so eager to name people who should be getting prem experience, but a lot slower to name the person they should be replacing.

[Epaminondas Pules]

There's more that are ready for the step up earlier, but below that there's much less opportunity, hence the large number of loans out to Champ and NL clubs. The A league basically died. Prem cup offers some opportunity, but largely depends on each club and how they're taking it in terms of development (or not!). There's usually a handful of current U20s with 1st XV game time, of which one or two have meaningful time on the pitch. That's been a pretty constant theme over the last few years.

In terms of the U20s there's a handful who've got game time, mostly down to injury like Baxter and Thomas. Probably say Arundell, Jospeh, Litchfield are in the mix for game time, and have some decent time on the ptich.

Richards is the outlier having arguably forced the selection question and answered it. I think he's got something like 20 games under his belt already.

Well, and Fin Smith who is first choice 10 at Wuss and still an U20.

If you look at last year's U20s then there's a number with real experience already, including two who have been capped:
Forwards
Ben Bamber (Bristol Bears)
Harvey Beaton (Saracens)
Phil Brantingham (Newcastle Falcons)
Lucas Brooke (London Irish)
Arthur Clark (Gloucester Rugby)
Jack Clement (Gloucester Rugby)
Luke Green (London Irish)
Alex Groves (Bristol Bears)
Lewis Holsey (Worcester Warriors)
Ethan Hunt (Gloucester Rugby)
Emeka Ilione (Leicester Tigers)
George Martin (Leicester Tigers)
Nahum Merigan (Bath Rugby)
Marcus Rhodes (London Irish)
Ewan Richards (Bath Rugby)
Sam Riley (Harlequins)
Ethan Staddon (Bath Rugby)
Freddie Thomas (Gloucester Rugby)

Backs
Charlie Atkinson (Wasps)
Seb Atkinson (Worcester Warriors)
Deago Bailey (Bristol Bears)
Orlando Bailey (Bath Rugby)
Oscar Beard (Harlequins)
Joe Carpenter (Sale Sharks)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)
Will Joseph (London Irish)
Dan Lancaster (Leeds Tykes)
Tommy Mathews (Northampton Saints)
Raffi Quirke (Sale Sharks)
Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
Fin Smith (Worcester Warriors)
Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers)

Go back a year earlier and it is even better, which needs Chessum adding to it.

Alfie Barbeary
Theodore Dan
Harvey Beaton
Sam Crean
Luke Green
James Whitcombe
Ben Donnell
George Martin
Hugh Tizard
Richard Capstick
Jack Clement
Rob Farrar
Josh Gray
Nahum Merigan
JJ Tonks
Rusiate Tuima
Sam Maunder
Raphael Quirke
Jack van Poortvliet
George Barton
Tom Curtis
Will Haydon-Wood
Manu Vunipola
Connor Doherty
Max Ojomoh
Gabriel Hamer-Webb
Tom Roebuck
Ollie Sleightholme
Joe Carpenter
Noah Heward
Josh Hodge
Freddie Steward

It's not a bad conversion rate when you look at how many become first choice, or first team regular within 2 years of graduating U20s, and there's a few missed off those lists, which played different games, or didn't get the England call.

[Slater582]

U19s beat Italy 41 v 20 in Verona!

England led by four points at half time. Best team try in that first half at approx 47:30 on the Youtube video (32nd minute during the match) finished off by Oresanya. That fella has also been in Ireland squads so it'll be interesting to see which U20 side he competes for next year. The other Quins wing Cleaves scores a try at approx 1:39:40 on the video (68th minute during the match) that was a fine individual effort.

England selection for this U19 fixture;

1. Archie McArthur 2. Jasper Spandler 3. Tim Hoyt 4. Kaden Pearce-Paul 5. Alfie Bell 6. Mackenzie Graham 7. Josh Dingley 8. Greg Fisilau (C)

9. Nye Thomas 10. Monty Bradbury 11. Cassius Cleaves 12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White 13. Tobias Elliott 14. Conor Oresanya 15. Sam Harris

16. Nathan Jibulu 17. Tom Sims 18. Archie Maggs 19. James Pollard 20. Rob Carmichael 21. Simon Koroiyadi 22. Charlie Bracken 23. Jed Walsh 24. Charlie McCaig 25. Jack Walsh 26. Louie Johnson


I believe all of the above will be eligible for the Junior World Cup next year. Majority of that U19 starting pack have already participated in the U20 Six Nations not including Mackenzie Graham who did play in a warm-up fixture against Oxford University. The two starting forwards that weren't previously involved at that level are Pearce-Paul and Dingley iirc and I reckon the former was one of the best performers against Italy. Of the backs; Nye Thomas, Cleaves & Ma’asi-White already have U20 caps as does Louie Johnson on the bench.

Five other players who did not appear in this U19 match but did get U20 caps earlier this year and are still eligible for 2023 to my knowledge; hooker Finn Theobald-Thomas, locks Lewis Chessum & Charlie Rice, flanker Kofi Cripps & centre Jacob Cusick. Back rowers Guy Pepper & Geordie Irvine were also around the camp.

[Slater582]

Does anyone know if the U18 summer tours to South Africa are back on

This tour is indeed returning for the first time since 2019. They're due to play three games in Cape Town during the last couple of weeks in August.

26 players named in the squad. In terms of club representation Newcastle have the most with four. Bath & Northampton three each. Five teams have a couple; Harlequins, Sale, Saracens, Wasps & Yorkshire. The other half a dozen Premiership academies have one member each meaning all current top flight clubs contribute a player. Quite the spread among schools also with 21 represented; Beechen Cliff (2), Stowe (2) & Sedbergh with four are the trio to provide more than one student.

Squad below with my attempt at including their position, my knowledge is admittedly limited on these players so perhaps Epaminondas Pules could point out any errors.

Loic Keasey (Hooker, RGS Worcester, Worcester Warriors)
Jacob Oliver (Hooker, Barnard Castle School, Newcastle Falcons)
Alex O’Driscoll (Prop, Berkhamsted, Wasps)
Tye Raymont (Prop, Bishop Burton School, Yorkshire Academy)
Billy Sela (Prop, Beechen Cliff, Bath)
Louie Trevett (Prop, Clifton College, Bristol Bears)
Finn Baker (Lock, Sedbergh School, Newcastle Falcons)
Jack Bennett (Lock, Monkton Combe School, Bath)
Tom Burrow (Lock, Heckmondwike Grammar, Yorkshire Academy)
Frank Chatterton (Lock? Stockport Grammar School, Sale Sharks)
Olamide Sodeke (Lock, Gravesend Grammar School, Saracens)
Henry Pollock (Flanker, Stowe School, Northampton Saints)
George Perkins (Flanker, Denstone College, Leicester Tigers)
Barney Merrett (Back row, Sutton Valence School, Saracens)

Archie McParland (Scrum-half, Stowe School, Northampton Saints)
Will Wootton (Scrum-half, Sedbergh School, Sale Sharks)
Rory Taylor (Fly-half, Wellington College, London Irish)
Raff Weston (Fly-half, Beechen Cliff, Bath)
George Edson (Centre, Truro College, Exeter Chiefs)
Sean Kerr (Centre, Whitgift School, Harlequins)
Toby Cousins (Outside back, Oakham School, Northampton Saints)
Tom Burton (Wing, Sedbergh School, Newcastle Falcons)
Will Glister (Wing, City of Oxford College, Wasps)
Conor Byrne (Fullback, Trinity College, Harlequins)
Ioan Jones (Fullback, Dean Close School, Gloucester)
Ben Redshaw (Fullback, Sedbergh School, Newcastle Falcons)

Not sure who the exceptional lads are here but looking back through this thread McParland, Taylor, Cousins, Glister, Byrne, Jones & Redshaw are the seven to have already played for England this season.

[FKAS]

George Perkins is supposed to be a handy openside.

[Which Tyler]

Of Bath's 3, Bully Sela gets a lot of mentions in dispatches

[twitchy]

Of Bath's 3, Bully Sela gets a lot of mentions in dispatches

I'm now sad he's not actually called bully. Can you imagine calling your kid that.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Think that's right Slater. There's always people like Redshaw who play multi-positions. He mixes for Sedbergh from inside centre to fullback and everywhere in between. Seems to be settling more for back three.

And lots of good noise coming out about Sela. Has come on really well, especially his scummaging. Real menace on the tighthead.

And agreed FKAS. He looks like a good one. The Denstone coaches rave about him.

In terms of standouts, which is always somewhat subjective, i like Trevett and Sela on either side of the scrum. Baker looks a very good lock, whilst Perkins and Pollock look like good prospects.

The backs are a maybe a little more stardust. Weston is the pick of the halfbacks, whilst Cousins, Glister, Burton and Byrne all have something about them. For me Ioan Jones is the one to watch, with a little eye out for Sean Kerr seeing as everyone likes an inside centre prospect.

[Puja]

with a little eye out for Sean Kerr seeing as everyone likes an inside centre prospect.

Frankly, I think it's a disgrace that he's not going to Australia this summer.

Puja

[Epaminondas Pules]

If he finds out he's also Irish qualified then he's on the plane!