'How he doesn't get in the England U20 set-up, I don't know'

Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Steve Diamond is stunned his 18-year-old scrum-half Joe Davis has not been included in England’s U20 elite player squad.

Davis made his Newcastle debut in the opening round of the Gallagher Premiership season, playing the final ten minutes of the 3-24 loss to the Bristol Bears, making his second appearance with a 20-minute cameo against Harlequins on Saturday at the Stoop.

Following the 28-14 loss to Quins, Diamond highlighted the youth in his squad when talking to TNT Sports. 

Sam Cane after his 100th Test for the All Blacks and TJ Perenara after his last home game | All Blacks post-match

Sam Cane after his 100th Test for the All Blacks and TJ Perenara after his last home game | All Blacks post-match

The director of rugby pinpointed Davis, and showed his surprise that he is not in the England U20 set-up, stating he is the only “kid” playing Premiership rugby at the moment.

Davis, who only made his England U18 debut at the beginning of this year, had not actually made a Premiership appearance when Mark Mapletoft and assistant coach Andy Titterrell named their EPS, but he may have turned their heads already.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Newcastle

12:30

5 Oct 24

Leicester

All Stats and Data

“A lot of youngsters were bled,” Diamond said. “Young Joe Davis, 18 years of age. How he doesn’t get into the England U20s set-up, I don’t know. He’s the only kid playing Premiership rugby at the moment. And far too many to mention.

“A reasonable performance. We put a lot of errors from last week away, maybe that was being ring rusty. We’ll get better. The group are very tight.

“We’ve got some debutants and some new players etc.

“Lots of good things, I’m disappointed with the result, no one likes losing, but at the end of the day someone has to win, it wasn’t us today, and credit to a really good team that played some good rugby to beat us.”

England U20 men elite player squad
Forwards
Aiden Ainsworth-Cave (Northampton Saints)
Charlie Barker (Saracens)
Oscar Beckerleg (Exeter Chiefs)
Thomas Burrow (Sale Sharks)
Tom Dye (Northampton Saints)
Lucas Gulley (Exeter Chiefs)
Reggie Hammick (Saracens)
Kane James (Exeter Chiefs) *
Seb Kelly (Sale Sharks)
Jack Lightbown (Sale Sharks)
Reuben Logan (Northampton Saints)
Alfie Longstaff (Sale Sharks)
Josh Mann (Exeter Chiefs
Ralph McEachran (Sale Sharks
Jacob Oliver (Newcastle Falcons) *
Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints) *
Tye Raymont (Sale Sharks)
Oliver Scola (Northampton Saints)
Vilikesa Sela (Bath Rugby) *
Olamide Sodeke (Saracens) *
Jimmy Staples (Harlequins)
Ollie Streeter (Harlequins)
George Timmins (Bath Rugby)
Connor Treacey (Bath Rugby)
Kepu Tuipulotu (Bath Rugby)
Charlie West (Saracens)
Samuel Williams (Leicester Tigers)

Backs
Nicholas Allison (Exeter Chiefs)
Josh Bellamy (Harlequins) *
Jack Bracken (Saracens) *
Conor Byrne (Harlequins)
Benjamin Coen (Exeter Chiefs) *
Ollie Davies (Sale Sharks)
Lucas Friday (Harlequins) *
William Glister (Northampton Saints)
Charlie Griffin (Bath Rugby)
Angus Hall (Saracens) *
Dom Hanson (Sale Sharks)
Jack Kinder (Leicester Tigers)
Nick Lilley (Exeter Chiefs)
Frank McMillan (Harlequins)
Archie McParland (Northampton Saints) *
Charlie Myall (Leicester Tigers)
Gethin O’Callaghan (Bristol Bears)
Tyler Offiah (Bath Rugby)
George Pearson (Leicester Tigers)
Ben Redshaw (Newcastle Falcons) *
Campbell Ridl (Exeter Chiefs)
Jonny Weimann (Northampton Saints)
Toby Wilson (Sale Sharks)

*denotes a player capped in a competitive U20 fixture