England u20s vs Wales

England Under 20 squad to face Wales

15 Piers O’Conor (Wasps)
14 George Perkins (Saracens)
13 Joe Marchant (Harlequins)
12 Max Clark (Bath Rugby)
11 Howard Packman (Northampton Saints)*
10 Rory Jennings (Bath Rugby)
9 Stuart Townsend (Exeter Chiefs)

1 Ellis Genge (Bristol Rugby)
2 Jack Walker (Yorkshire Carnegie)*
3 Paul Hill (Yorkshire Carnegie)*
4 Kieran Treadwell (Harlequins)
5 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, captain)*
6 Charlie Beckett (Leicester Tigers)
7 Will Owen (Leicester Tigers)
8 James Chisholm (Harlequins)*

Replacements:

16 Jake Farnworth (Leicester Tigers)
17 Seb Adeniran-Olule (Harlequins)
18 Ciaran Parker (Sale Sharks)
19 Joe Batley (Gloucester Rugby)
20 Josh Bainbridge (Yorkshire Carnegie)
21 James Mitchell (Sale Sharks)
22 Tom Morton (Sale Sharks)
23 Tom Fowlie (London Irish)

Decent spread of academies there, which is pleasing. Good to see Sale, Bristol, 'Yorkshire' and Leicester there.

Live coverage on Saturday from S4C, starting at 19:15 with kick off at 19:30

WALES SIDE

Dafydd Howells (Ospreys);

Joshua Adams (Scarlets),
Barney Nightingale (Dragons),
Garyn Smith (Blues),
Rhys  Williams (Leicester Tigers);

Dan Jones (Scarlets),
Tom Williams (Blues);

Luke Garrett (Dragons),
Liam Belcher (Blues),
Dillon Lewis (Blues),
Joe Davies (Dragons),
Rory Thornton (capt, Ospreys),
Tom Phillips (Scarlets),
Harrison Keddie (Dragons),
Ollie Griffiths (Dragons)

Replacements: Ryan Elias (Scarlets), Keagan Bale (Dragons), Joe Jones (Blues), Adam Beard (Ospreys), Jordan Viggers (Blues), Kieran Hardy (Scarlets), James Whittingham (Blues), Owen Watkin (Ospreys)

Is it on sky?

yappysnap wrote:Is it on sky?

Nope - live and EXCLUSIVELY on S4C

Joe Marchant is a decent looking prospect

Let's hope it's closer than last year...

I think Wales will get bullied again in the scrum.


Well everywhere actually.

Let's hope they get a good crowd. They had 6,500 for the last meeting between the 2 at Parc Eirias

http://www.wru.co.uk/eng/matchcentre/32597.php

Wales Under-20 Team Manager Mark Taylor has backed his young Dragons to avenge last season's heavy defeat to England in their Six Nations opener at Eirias Park on Saturday night.Taylor's side were beaten 67-7 by the Red Rose after a promising start to last season's tournament. Tomos Williams, Joe Davies and Ollie Griffiths are the survivors from the defeat in Newcastle. And Taylor is confident his side can bounce back in North Wales, just as they did against New Zealand three years ago.

He said: "The game in Newcastle last year was the toughest to take because we never got started. We got rattled and never recovered, we made a load of mistakes and missed a lot of tackles which is unlike us.

"We learned a lot about the players and ourselves as a management group that day. I look back to the 2011 World Cup when we were beaten by 90 points by New Zealand and then a year later we became the first team to beat them in the competition. If you can stand up against your opposite number then you have a chance."

Twice capped prospect Dafydd Howells starts at full-back alongside wing Joshua Adams, who was a replacement in the clash last season. Williams, who was an ever-present in last season's tournament starts at scrum-half alongside Pontypridd team-mate Garyn Smith, who also featured last year.

Captain Rory Thornton stars at lock alongside Davies with Cross Keys prop Luke Garrett, and back row Griffiths also continuing their U20 progression.

Wales senior squad member Tyler Morgan, lock Seb Davies and props Alex Jeffries and Harrison Walsh have been ruled out of this game due to injury.

England have named five players from last season's successful Junior World Championship campaign in New Zealand, with Bath lock Charlie Ewels captains the side for the first time.

FORM GUIDE - WALES
20/6/14 Wal U20 20 - 3 Sam U20 JWC
15/6/14 Wal U20 18 - 19 Fra U20 JWC
10/6/14 Wal U20 13 - 3 Fra U20 JWC

FORM GUIDE - ENGLAND
20/6/14 Eng U20 21 - 20 RSA U20 JWC
15/6/14 Eng U20 42 - 15 Ire U20 JWC
10/6/14 Eng U20 17 - 16 Arg U20 JWC

LAST 3 MEETINGS
7/3/14 England U20s 67 - 7 Wales U20s 6 NATIONS
23/6/13 Wales U20s 15 - 23 England U20s JWC
15/3/13 Wales U20s 15 - 28 England U20s 6 NATIONS

You're playing Wales U20, and they're at home. So shouldn't the title be 'Wales U20 vs England U20'?

We've got rid of Hayward, so we should get some better/less embarrassing results this year. Can't believe just how far backwards the team went under him.

The Saint wrote:You're playing Wales U20, and they're at home. So shouldn't the title be 'Wales U20 vs England U20'?

We've got rid of Hayward, so we should get some better/less embarrassing results this year. Can't believe just how far backwards the team went under him.

To be fair to Dave, he started this off by simply posting the England U20 team, so he was 'correct'. The thread seems to have evolved from that. You're not wrong about Hayward though !!

There's already Wales U20 and England U20 squad threads running, so assumed this was the match thread. If not, maybe now it can be .

About to kick off.

Good ball retention from Wales. Nice offload from the Welsh 7. Penalty to Wales, 3-0. Although 12 was clearly not the tackler so seemed a mistake.

Yellow card for English player. Late hit or something. Again seemed a bit harsh.

First scrum of the game. England put in. Good stable scrum. Refreshing.

Penalty to Wales.

Nice try by Chisholm off the back of a scrum, non existent Welsh defence though

Chisholm try off the base of the scrum. Kick made, 3-7

Half time 11-12. Nice try by Merchant for England. Good physical drive by the Welsh for their try. England's lineout has been a mess, Wales' better but not great. Scrums are relatively even, in that they're staying up rather than equal penalties, which is nice.

Six was too slow to get across for the first English try. Nothing the winger could do. The rapid English winger has looked very good (bar his interesting football skills in his dead ball area!) and the Welsh 7 has carried hard too. Think the English pack will wear Wales down as the game goes on though.

Scrums staying up makes the game far more enjoyable to watch. Good game so far.

This is the U20 fixture I always dread because the English just seem to breed them bigger, or mature them quicker, or something! it always seems like men vs boys. I think it was the U20 World Cup final recently (or was it a semi? Was it even last year???) when we tried to run England around. We created some good stuff and some good tries but England just power slammed us in the end unfortunately.

Only just switched this on so can't comment so far, but happy with the 14-12 scoreline. However, I tend to put a curse on teams when I switch on and they're leading!

jeez some of the welsh players look nearer 30 than 20!

what are your boys being fed over there?

good game if a little scrappy at the breakdown.

Have England just the lead?

Watching on line and just lost connection.

Fantastic win for the Wales U20s,

Defended their hearts out for the last 10 minutes, it really looked like England were going to steal it at the end - but there was such determination

Perhaps we should play this team against Scotland.....

Well done Wales. Outplayed England in pretty much every facet. Certainly outpowered them. England's lineout was terrible. They looked clueless in Attack in the last few minutes, no idea how to breakdown the Welsh defence.

Was a cracking game our defence really showed up especially in the last 10 minutes

Just goes to show, get more Dragons in a Welsh shirt and results will happen.

Yes well played Wales great defence at the end.

That English left winger Packman ? has got some serious wheels!

Griff wrote:This is the U20 fixture I always dread because the English just seem to breed them bigger, or mature them quicker, or something! it always seems like men vs boys. I think it was the U20 World Cup final recently (or was it a semi? Was it even last year???) when we tried to run England around. We created some good stuff and some good tries but England just power slammed us in the end unfortunately.

Only just switched this on so can't comment so far, but happy with the 14-12 scoreline. However, I tend to put a curse on teams when I switch on and they're leading!

2013 final Griff - with a Welsh side containing Dee Dixon Amos, Sam Davies, Jordan Williams Steffan Hughes, Ieuan Jones, Nicky Thomas and Ellis Jenkins, all players who have gone on to regular senior rugby

Have England changed their coach. I think I heard he's gone to coach in the Prem. It'd be a shame if so as we've had a number of really well drilled teams under him.

Missed the game but somewhat surprised at the result. When i caught a bit of it in spoons we were on the ropes, 2 tries down and we kept going for the corner. Happy for the team though, hope this ends the U20 bogey! England dealt with, means we should NOW be able to win our first championship....

The former England coach is now the Gloucester backs' coach. Jonathan Callard is now in charge. That wasn't the best start! England really struggled to deal with the referee, which meant they couldn't muster any momentum until towards the end of the game.

England's discipline cost them dear. Three yellow cards robbed them of any momentum, and the Welsh defence was firm most of the time. One yellow for dangerous late tackle (the commentators and my Welsh in-law thought it was harsh). One was for repeat infringements. One was for a penalty in the red zone. Wales got a yellow in the last five for a (I think) a red zone infringement, might have been repeat.

But once Wales had weathered the initial English Attack (after a bright start from Wales) they seemed reasonably comfortable.

will take any win over double world champions at this level

Well just watched the game. It's an astonishing difference to last year's crop who were pretty weak and very poorly drilled. Quite the opposite this year. The ref was very strict but I think he was fair and pretty good.

Really good game with Wales playing with speed, skill and deserved the win unlike the senior team clueless, slow and no go forward.

Well said alun.