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

Joe Davis (c) and Falcons team mates react after the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Newcastle Falcons and Bristol Bears at Kingston Park on September 20, 2024 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

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.

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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. 

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

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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
10 - 42
Full-time
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.

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“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

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H
Hellhound 19 minutes 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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