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England are on the hunt for a new under-20s coach

Joel Kpoku will be keen to build on two productive seasons with the England U20s. (Photo by Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images)

England men’s under-20s head coach Steve Bates is to leave the RFU. After joining in 2017 the former Wasps scrum-half, who was capped for England, has decided to explore other exciting rugby related opportunities. A replacement will be announced in due course.

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Bates has spent two years within the men’s pathway with responsibility for coaching and managing the under-20s’ programme, assisting in the development of many future full international players, some of which are in contention to represent England in the upcoming World Cup in Japan.

Speaking about his departure Bates said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed working alongside the pathway team and the RFU academies over the last two years and have been lucky enough to coach the under-20s in three World Rugby Under-20 Championships, reaching the final in two. 

“I wish the RFU, and particularly the pathway, all the best for the future and look forward to supporting England to victory in the World Cup in October. 

“I would like to thank Nigel (Melville, the RFU professional rugby director) and the team for the opportunity to experience the great depth of talent that England has at both under-20s and under-18s and am sure the pathway will go from strength to strength in the future.”

(Continue reading below…)

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Melville added: “I’d like to thank Steve for all his hard work within the England men’s pathway over the past two years. He has had an important role identifying and developing the next generation of England players – not only the under-20s, in his role as head coach, but also by supporting the under-18s programme.

“As well as nurturing players as they develop towards a senior career, he has also facilitated important opportunities for those starting out their coaching career to grow and make their own mark. 

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“The work he has done with the coach development programme has been invaluable and created a pipeline of very capable young coaches. We wish Steve all the best in his future career.”

WATCH: Part one of The Academy, the six-part RugbyPass documentary series on how Leicester Tigers develop their young players

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JW 3 hours ago
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Agree re Lynagh.


Disagree Beaver got it wrong. Blues made that look easy. It might be a brawn over brains picture though? More in the last point, but, and this may have changed by player selection, the Reds were very lucky this game. Tele’a should not have been red carded as Ryan landed on his shoulder, and both Tate and Jock (was it) should have been yellowed carded for their offenses in stopping tries. We also had a try dissallowed by going back 10 phases in play. We all should have learned after the RWC that that is against the rules. So straight away on this simple decisions alone the result changes to go in the Blues favour, away from home and playing fairly poorly. The sleeping giant if you will. I didn’t agree with the Blues take either tbh, but to flip it around and say it’s the Reds instead is completely inaccurate (though a good side no doubt you have to give them a chance).


And you’re also riding the wave of defense wins matches a bit much. Aside from Dre’s tackling on Rieko I didn’t see anything in that match other than a bit of tiny goal line defending. I think if you role on the tap for another second you see the ball put placed for the try (not that I jump to agree with Eklund purely because he was adamant), and in general those just get scored more often than not. They are doing something good though stopping line breaks even if it is the Blues (and who also got over the line half a dozen times), I did not expect to be greeted with that stat looking at the game.

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Ashley Carson 3 hours ago
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