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'He's got something about him': The unknown 20-year-old lock called up by England

(Photo by Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images)

Much change was demanded after England limped to a desultory fifth-place finish in the recent Guinness Six Nations and a revamp is precisely what materialised when Eddie Jones included 21 uncapped players in the 34-strong training squad that will meet for five days next week in London ahead of a summer series where newcomers such as Chunya Munga of London Irish will be hoping to make a good first impression.

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London Irish don’t usually have players called up to the England squad, their youngsters instead moving on elsewhere and then making it on the international scene. Lions pick Anthony Watson is an example of this trend that regularly occurred in times past.

However, with Declan Kidney now making a concerted effort to ensure the Exiles keep hold of their youngsters, Jones has responded by calling three of their promising talents into his England squad – 20-year-old lock Munga, 22-year-old winger Ollie Hassell-Collins and 23-year-old full-back Tom Parton.

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The latter is the most experienced of the trio, Parton playing 36 times in the Gallagher Premiership. Hassell-Collins is next best with 26 appearances and then comes Munga with 13 appearances, six as a starter.

The Reading-born lock’s London Irish profile lists him at 120kgs but standing at just 6ft 5ins, yet England boss Jones sounded intrigued by what the age-grade international might bring to the senior England party next week.

“They have been doing well,” said Jones about the progress of London Irish nearing the end of their second season back in the Premiership. “They have got a nice balance between some seriously seasoned international players and some young talent coming through, but I think London Irish has always been known as a club to produce talent. It just so happened that most of them leave relatively quickly and this time they have managed to hold on to some of their talents and there are some good players there.

“The young lock, we have been looking at him for a while, Munga, he has got something about him. I know he has been in the pathway teams but he is a big strong, athletic, physical type player so he is an interesting prospect for us.”

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H
Hellhound 1 hour ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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