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Getting to Know: England U20s No8 Nathan Michelow

England's Nathan Michelow salutes Tuesday night's win over the Junior Boks (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

It’s been quite the 2024 adventure for England under Mark Mapletoft, winning the age-grade Six Nations and then clinching top spot in Pool C on Tuesday night at the World Rugby U20 Championship.

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One of the standouts has been Nathan Michelow, who has a famous sporting lineage. Mum Amanda Brown played tennis at Wimbledon and was on the pro circuit in the early 1980s, uncle Kenny played football for West Ham United around the same time while granddad Ken was a 1964 FA Cup winner in a Hammers team with Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst.

A knock prevented Michelow from togging out for the middle game versus Fiji but he was in the thick of it against southern hemisphere heavyweight duo Argentina and South Africa, registering a combined total of 42 carries and 35 tackles.

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HITS, BUMPS AND HANDOFFS! | The biggest collisions from the U20s World Championships

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HITS, BUMPS AND HANDOFFS! | The biggest collisions from the U20s World Championships

Those are immense figures and he will be looking to impress again this Sunday when England tackle Ireland in the semi-finals at the iconic home of the Stormers in the heart of Cape Town.

Michelow was part of the class of 2023 that finished in fourth place at the Championship, but they appear to be a far more potent squad a year on and the brotherhood they have nurtured has been evident in Embedded, the RugbyPass TV documentary series taking fans behind the scenes during their campaign in South Africa.

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World Rugby U20 Championship
England U20
31 - 20
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Ireland U20
All Stats and Data

England go into the last four believing they can finally knock over the Irish following two successive draws against them, the most recent coming 18 weeks ago when it finished 32-all at Bath in the Six Nations.

In the lead-up to this latest clash, Michelow has taken the RugbyPass Getting to Know Q&A, with his answers featuring Lawrence Dallaglio, starting out at loosehead, Setanta College and Biggie:

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THE BASICS
Born: May 16, 2004;
Joined England age-grade: Italy when I was U18s. It was the year after covid.
Club: Saracens;
Height: 6ft 3;
Weight: 109kg;
Position: No8;
Boots: Adidas or Asics. I like the new one, the RS15 are the ones I am wearing at the moment;
Gumshield: Just whatever they have given me really;
Headgear: Never worn headgear;
School: Coopers, and Sutton Valence after that.

RATE YOURSELF (out of 100)
Pace: 77, 78;
Passing: Off the right I’ll give it a 65, off the left maybe not so high;
Tackling: Put that at 90. 

THE PAST
My favourite England player of all time is… I really like Lawrence Dallaglio;

Favourite try I have ever scored is… Either Fiji here last year or a try I scored for Saracens against Scarlets;

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A rugby memory that makes me smile is… Premiership debut, definitely.

The moment I realised I could make it is… Probably Premiership debut;

One piece of advice I would give to my younger self is… Don’t get caught up too much in everything, just enjoy the moment without worrying too much about what is going to happen too much afterwards;

My best subject in school was… Oh, either psychology or PE;

Growing up, my position was… The very first position I played was loosehead prop and then I slowly moved my way back, dabbled in centres and then got told no, too big to go there, go in the back row. Probably about year eight, year nine, that was when I found back row as my real position. But yeah, first position was loosehead prop and that was criminal. It was my dad, he used to play as a prop and he tried making me into it. I took one look at it and not a chance;

The coach who has most impacted my game is… From a young age, from schoolboy, my two school coaches at Coopers, Mr Marshall and Mr Holt, were very influential for me but then when I got into Sarries academy, Juan Figallo, he has kind of been with me since I was about 16 and growing up with him as my coach the last few years has been really nice and he is brilliant.

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THE PRESENT
My best attributes on the field are… Probably my carrying and my impact and the impacts I can make in defence;

One thing I’m doing to improve my education is… I am studying with Setanta College online at the moment about sports performance, so I have been doing the first year there and I am going to extend it and do another few courses, a conditioning one as well;

My favourite current England player is… It’s weird because Chandler (Cunningham-South), I played with him and it’s brilliant seeing him do so well, and Ben Earl, playing with him at the club. But Ollie Lawrence or Henry Slade at the moment, watching them two play has been really exciting so probably them two to watch anyway;

My favourite YouTuber is… I listen to a couple of podcasts, like the odd Joe Rogan podcast when I can, but I am not really on YouTube;

My hardest working teammate is… Finn Carnduff;

My most skilful teammate isOllie Allan or Josh Bellamy;

My favourite training drill is… I like we do this defensive drill where it’s like hit a tube, up and through, back and tackle. I quite like doing that, it’s fun;

My favourite music artist is… I like Biggie and a bit of the ’90s rap stuff but I also quite like my house music, but I’d say Biggie.

THE FUTURE
A player who could go all the way is… Finn again, definitely;

If I could play with anyone, I would like to play with… I’d love to have played with Dan Carter, that would have been unbelievable;

I will be happy with my career if I… Probably not like anything tangible, it’s more just how far could I have taken myself and did I make the most of every opportunity I get. If that means I get 10 games or 200 games, whatever it is, as long as I have given it everything I’d be happy with that;

One thing I want to add to my game is… Probably I want to make myself a little more dynamic. I have got a good pre-season block after this to properly get after, so that is something that I will look to do;

If I could play in any other country, I would play in… Either France or New Zealand;

One person I want to meet is… Just anyone? These questions get you thinking. I’d love to meet Roger Federer, especially as I quite enjoy my tennis and I want to know what he is like as a person and kind of how he ticks. It would be good to pick his brain;

One trophy I would love to win is… This U20s one is big but I’d love to win a Premiership at some point in my life.

  • Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live coverage of matches from the 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship in countries that don’t have an exclusive local host broadcaster deal

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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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