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England U20s make a dozen changes to starting XV to face Fiji

(Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images for World Rugby)

England have named a starting XV to play Fiji on Thursday at the Junior World Championship showing a dozen changes from last Saturday’s opening-round draw with Ireland. Mark Mapletoft’s charges secured a 34-all share of the spoils in Paarl against the current Six Nations U20s champions, but the head coach has now delved into his squad for the Pool C assignment versus the Fijians in Stellenbosch.

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Only Finn Carnduff, the blindside who will captain the team from lock in place of his benched Leicester colleague Lewis Chessum, out-half Connor Slevin, and Joe Jenkins, the left wing who has switched to outside centre, have been retained to start for the second successive match.

A statement read: “England men’s U20 head coach Mark Mapletoft has named his team to face Fiji in their second match of the World Rugby U20 Championship after the side played out a 34-all draw against Ireland U20 to open their tournament in South Africa.

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“Finn Carnduff from Leicester Tigers has been named captain for the match. In the front row, James Halliwell gets his first start after debuting on Saturday, promoted to the starting 15 alongside fellow prop Archie McArthur and hooker Nathan Jibulu.

“Behind them, Harlequins’ Harry Browne joins the captain Carnduff in the second row. Nathan Michelow will start at blindside flanker, with Tristan Woodman packing down on the opposite side of the scrum, while Zach Carr earns his first England U20 cap at No8.

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“Nye Thomas is the England scrum-half, playing inside Connor Slevin who again starts at fly-half after a flawless display off the kicking tee in his debut against Ireland. Toby Thame (inside centre) and Alex Wills (left wing) are also in line to make their England U20 debuts. Lining up outside them are Joe Jenkins, Jacob Cusick and Louie Johnson who will wear the 13, 14 and 15 shirts respectively.

“Craig Wright, Ethan Clarke, Afolabi Fasogbon, Lewis Chessum, Greg Fisilau, Charlie Bracken, Cassius Cleaves and Tobias Elliott are the replacements. “

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Mapletoft said: “We were really pleased with the things the team did well in our game against Ireland on Saturday, particularly with how we built upon our performances from the Six Nations. We have taken learnings on board from the match and have now shifted our attention to Fiji, who gave the Australians a real crack in their tournament opener.

“With only a five-day turnaround between fixtures, our players have prioritised their recovery well. We have named a number of debutants for Thursday’s match, so congratulations to those five lads and all others selected.”

England (vs Fiji U20s – Thursday, 7pm SAST, 6pm UK time)
15. Louie Johnson (Newcastle Falcons)
14. Jacob Cusick (Leicester Tigers)
13. Joe Jenkins (Bristol Bears)
12. Toby Thame* (Northampton Saints)
11. Alex Wills* (Sale Sharks)
10. Connor Slevin (Harlequins)
9. Nye Thomas (Sale Sharks)
1. Archie McArthur (Gloucester)
2. Nathan Jibulu (Harlequins)
3. James Halliwell (Bristol Bears)
4. Finn Carnduff (Leicester Tigers)
5. Harry Browne (Harlequins)
6. Nathan Michelow (Saracens)
7. Tristan Woodman (Sale Sharks)
8. Zach Carr* (Harlequins)

Replacements:
16. Craig Wright* (Northampton Saints)
17. Ethan Clarke* (Harlequins)
18. Afolabi Fasogbon
19. Lewis Chessum (Leicester Tigers)
20. Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs)
21. Charlie Bracken (Saracens)
22. Cassius Cleaves (Harlequins)
23. Tobias Elliott (Saracens)
*Denotes England U20s debut

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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