England U20 team to play France announced

Nothing from Cumbrian yet, so I'll fill in. Team for tomorrow's U20 semi-final against France has been announced on the RFU website (http://www.rfu.com/News/2011/June/News%20Articles/200611_Eng_V_France_Team_JWC.aspx) and is as follows:

15 Ben Ransom Saracens
14 Jonathan Joseph London Irish
13 Guy Armitage London Irish
12 Owen Farrell Saracens
11 Christian Wade London Wasps
10 George Ford Leicester Tigers
9 Chris Cook Bath Rugby
1 Mako Vunipola Saracens
2 Mikey Haywood Northampton Saints
3 Will Collier Harlequins
4 Joe Launchbury London Wasps
5Charlie Matthews Harlequins
6 Matt Kvesic Worcester Warriors
7 Matt Everard Leicester Tigers
8 Alex Gray (C) Newcastle Falcons
Replacements
16 Rob Buchanan Harlequins
17 Ryan Bower Leicester Tigers
18 Sam Twomey Harlequins
19 Sam Jones London Wasps
20 Dan Robson Gloucester Rugby
21 Ryan Mills Gloucester Rugby
22 Marland Yarde London Irish

Noticeably weaker than the side that played the Baby Boks, with the absence of Thomas (tighthead) and Daly (outside centre), both of whom I suspect are injured, although annoyingly there is no update in the article. The good news is both replacements are strong, Collier is a huge unit and Guy Armitage (brother of Delon and Steffan) played superbly when he came on against South Africa.

The other good news is that surely this is our best wing combination with both Joseph and Wade massive natural talents with a lot of experience for their age. With Yarde on the bench and the error prone Andy Short in the stands that's as good as it gets.

The biggest problem for me is the reshuffling of the back row with Kvesic going back to the blind side and Everard coming back in for Jones, it seems to be a massive step backwards to the games where England got beaten up badly at the breakdown. I simply can't understand why that combination is preferred, Everard is a penalty machine while Kvesic looks like a pretty special openside to me. Hey ho.

Good luck tomorrow to the lads, looks like a good even match, but England are unbeaten this season and I think that if only they can keep discipline at the breakdown they will have too much for France again.

When is it on? I'm lazy

It's disappointing that Everard (who has been released by Leicester and who won't ever represent England again after this tournament) has been brought back in again. All season hs presence has unbalanced the backrow, leaving the side short of bulk and ball-carriers. France are decent and this has made England's task harder.

Losing my touch.

(it's on tomorrow, or, er... today. Wednesday at five.)

Would like to see Koree Britton be given more of a chance. He's an excellent player (the best of the hookers in the squad imo) and as far as I can remember he's only had about five minutes at the end of the S.A. game.

I wasn't sure about the Daly injury during the SA match, he only looked to have pick up a bit of a stinger. He certainly looked annoyed that he was subbed off. I'd quite like to see what else Armitage (he's a better player than the last time I saw him) has got to be honest, accepting that Daly is an excellent player and will be a loss.

I do find the backrow situation a little odd. Everard and Kvesic are essentially competing for the same role, with only one winner. Kvesic has been superior in every area of the game. He also has the added ability to make the hard yards. The omission of a hard running player like Ollie Steadman seems a little remiss. It's a shame that Kieran Low is injured, he could have taken Twomey's place and covered both positions.

Cumbrian, I think Haywood has done enough to deserve the starting jersey, Britton is probably the bigger prospect but has another year to mature. I would definitely prefer to have him on the bench ahead of Buchanan though.

Buchanan is another huge ball carrier but his line-out throwing fell apart alarmingly in the 6Ns, and if he came on in a tight situation that could cost us the match.

Everard is a conundrum. Hunter evidently sees something in him that one else does, including Richard Cockerill.

I'll agree that Haywood deserves his starting jersey, he has been straight as an arrow in the lineout and good around the field. I would like to see Britton given some time off the bench.

Juggler has put forward the theory that Buchanan might end up converting to become a prop. It might have some milage to be honest.

I think he was originally a prop that went the other way.

Where is Juggler these days?

Decent try. Two players could have scored that.

Positive start for England. 5-0.

Anyone know what the score is or how i can find live score updates?
Am stuck at work and can't get the irb coverage to work.

13-10 to England at the moment. Hound of Harrow is posting the odd score update in the Pub thread

Cheers Kiwi

allez les blues

20-18 England now according to Hound

Finished 33-18, England into the final.

A great game from what i saw of it, did not see the first half but the score line did not reflect how tight the game was.

Well played to France. And well played to England for reaching the Final.

Great game, both teams threw the kitchen sink at it. Both teams were holding on at times, but England were good for the win. Some brilliant last ditch defence from Launchbury again.

Ford did very, very well with the ball in hand, but bottled it a little bit with his kicks at goal, could have been a bit more comfortable if his radar had been on.

Hope this hasn't take too much out of them, need to be absolutely top of their game to even compete effectively with the Baby Blacks (sorry to write you off Aus).

The midfield defence wasn't great. I can see a recall for Daly in the final.

Great game. all the games i ve seen in this tournament have been really entertaining.

Well played france, always felt england were the better side. George ford looks a real gem of a player, also lauchberry was outstanding.

Wish I had seen the game, well played England U20s, a very convincing win indeed.

maesteg

the score line looked convincing but gloss was put on it with a last minute intercept try, england were worthy winners though.

They seemed to be leading throughout the match, if only by a few points.

England have a strong team this year, they showed that in the U20s Six Nations.

England have been strong for the last 4 years. 4th was a bit of a blip last year but 3 runner-up spots in 4 years.

Hang on, Australia are looking REALLY good here.

7-0 to them.

great try from OZ, a real team try.

wondering how long Australia are going to keep this up.

Not long. 7-7 all

Aus keep the ball for five minutes, but concede a stupid error and the the Kiwis go over with a neat bit of play.

Some crunching hits but Australia end up getting isolated, more or less in front of their won posts 30/40 yards out.

7-10 to NZ.

oz lacking some tactical awareness here, no one likes to kick too much but a bit of tactical kicking when you are under pressure defensively is no bad thing.

I agree, there are some situations where the OZ standoff really should be looking to knock it in behind the baby blacks.

Australia playing their lucky cards here, could easily have been a try, but a knock on instead. Advantage was being played.

7-13

HT: 7-13

Aus have been battered at times, but will be ecstatic to still be in it, anything can happen from here.

oz are still in it.. but NZ look strong

only one winner from here ' NZ 20-7 OZ'

Aus endurance has gone. Baby Blacks could stretch their lead here.


7-30

Fair play to France, it could have gone either way and England had the rub of the green with the ref (first time in the tournament though).

Monsterous performances from Vunipola, Launchberry and Ford. Couple of defensive mistakes from Wade but there is so much much value in having a threat like him lurking out on the wing creating panic in the midfield, and he showed his class a couple of times. Huge underdogs for the final but never say die. Dream team for the final is:

Vunipola
Haywood
Thomas
Matthews
Launchberry
Jones
Kvesic
Gray
Cook
Ford
Joseph
Farrell
Daly
Wade
Ransom

HammerofThunor wrote:England have been strong for the last 4 years. 4th was a bit of a blip last year but 3 runner-up spots in 4 years.

Thunor, can we say 3 finals in 4 years? At least until Sunday

What was the final score Aus v Babyblacks.

37-7. http://www.irb.com/jwc/fixturesresults/index.html

Robbo,lets be realistic.

I certainly won't be on Sunday though.

I've been really impressed with Launchberry and Matthews.

Not a brilliant performance, but it's good to see some real mental toughness and desire to win. That suggests many of these players might progress to senor honours. Ford and Launchbury were the stars - Ford doesn't look as small as I'd feared and just seems to have an instinctive understanding of how to run a game. With players like Farrell, Burns and even Clegg FH shouldn't be a problem for England over the next few years.

I'm particularly pleased to see how good Launchbury looks. Apart from no.12 I thought lock was an area where England didn't have the necessary strength in depth going forward, but if Launchbury kicks on that improves things significantly.

Overall this England side is good enough that it might actually benefit from playing NZ, even though we'll probably lose. If we can stay within 20 points we'll have done ok.

Didn't get to watch the match but had the scores on liv, it seemed like a very close game. How was Fords Kicking, seemed like he did miss a couple, were they very tough or was it pressure?

Good to see the defensive grit was there again, if we can defend for the full 80 like we have for the final quarters of these last few games then we may well at least keep close to the baby blacks, although i do wish the Australians had at least made them work a bit more for their win!

Yappy snappy Australia made the Baby Blacks there side had 7 or 8 of last years side.Some had started for the Queensland Reds,they were there till
half time.
But they were physically exhausted by the BBs who varied there game plan,
even better than there Senior side do it.

Cheers Emack, from the report i read it didn't sound anywhere near as physical as the Eng-Fra game and i'm abit worried that as well as being massively more skilled then us they'll also have a lot more in the tanks.

To be fair watching them play, they probably will do anyways

I enjoyed the game. Lots of mistakes, but some good defence in places too. The amount of possession England had in the first half should have seen them further ahead but France came back well in the 2nd half.

As others have said Ford and Launchbury stood out and the scrum was largely solid.

One thing I noticed was the number of tap-tackles. Maybe it's just me but you don't see them that often these days - better defences? I seem to remember Worsley doing a great one a while back (against France?).

Loads of flies too, though they mainly seemed to bother the ref

It's going to be really tough against the BB's but I'd say reaching the final is about a par performance for these lads. I'm a bit worried that, like the Aussies, they'll run out of steam in the last 20 minutes against the seemingly relentless Kiwis - hope I'm wrong. Good luck in the final!

I've really enjoyed this tournament and nice to have some early evening kick-offs to watch after work.

SafeasMike, it was in the 2007 WC semi against France (on Clerc?). Near the end of the game when there still 6 points in it (I think).

Cheers, Thunor. That sounds right.

Oh, and it's Milk (not Mike!). Guess you're not a Captain Beefheart fan

I meant to write Milk

Back to the tackle, I thought he was in and I was cacking my pants

Ha, no worries, Thunor!

Yep, same here. That game was TOO close and that tackle really could have made all the difference to the outcome. Not sure I'd still have him in the squad though.

I'm hoping he's going to be a back-up player in case of injury and will fly out in case of injury. He should be able to slip in easier due to experience playing/training with the squad.

I hoping for a WC backrow of Moody, Easter, Croft, Wood, Haskell and Robshaw. No out and out 7, one out and out 8, but still...