The England verdict on rookie out-half and two 18-year-old props

Mark Mapletoft thought he had seen and done it all at the Junior World Championship but Saturday’s dramatic draw for England versus Ireland and its potential semi-final qualification ramifications left the seasoned coach stumped.

“I have done three Junior World Cups previously, never drawn a game so I have absolutely no idea,” he told RugbyPass, trying to get his head around the fall-out from the 34-all classic served up in Paarl.

“I guess both us and Ireland will be pleased we didn’t lose because that would have been a five-two points swing. As it is, three-three, it keeps it in the melting pot. All we can focus on is our next game against Fiji, give them respect and if we can perform as we did against Ireland with some obvious improvements we will be pleased.”

It was only on May 22 when U18s coach Mapletoft was confirmed as England U20s head coach, succeeding the Leicester-bound Alan Dickens. A two-game tour to Georgia quickly opened his eyes, his new charges losing in their second outing in Tbilisi, but they dusted themselves down impressively to match Ireland just 14 weeks after they have lost by 12 points to the same opposition in Cork in the Six Nations.

“Pre-season are what they are, you see it in all sports. You see it in football a lot. Teams have a great pre-season, win every game and then start the league season off with four losses. It [defeat in Tbilisi) was nothing really, we were very grateful for the opportunity Georgia gave us to go out there.

Captains Lewis Chessum and Gus McCarthy head away after the spoils were shared. #WorldRugby20s #EnglandRugby #Ireland pic.twitter.com/3HUzlhKjK6

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 24, 2023

“We tried a few combinations with different players, we tried to implement a few new things and we knew internally we were building towards this. The last game we played in the Six Nations we did some things really well, we did some things not so well and of course we played most of the second half with 14 men after Monty (Bradbury) was red carded and there were yellow cards as well.

“We knew that we had a chance to be competitive, but we needed to be on top of our game. We did some really good things and we have some areas we need to tidy up.

“One of our young coaches asked me, ‘How have you been doing this for 10 years at club level?’ The difference at club level is you probably get another game the week after the week after and the week after but with this, it is a bit of a shootout because you have got your three pool games and you have to be successful in them.

“Was it a fair result in the end? You’d probably have to say we were disappointed in the number of opportunities we had in their 22. They [Ireland] were super clinical when they had opportunities and probably uncharacteristically Sam (Prendergast), their fly-half, missed four kicks at goal.

“The last one was close but certainly it puts a slightly different perspective on it. In terms of the things we worked on leading into this, just building on what we did in the Six Nations, what we did in Georgia and overall, everybody we pretty pleased with how we performed.”

Particularly as out-half, where Connor Slevin was making his debut at this age-grade level, and at prop. “It’s hard to pick anybody out really but given the amount of involvement Connor Slevin has had with the group and the fact that he hasn’t played an awful lot at fly-half, to go up against someone of Sam’s quality, he has played first-team for Leinster, I thought Connor did a fantastic job.

“We had a good impact off the bench from Jacob (Cusick) on the wing and definitely in our front row, we started to get the squeeze on the scrum in the second half. We have got two 18-year-old props (Asher Opoku-Fordjour of Sale and the currently unattached Afolabi Fasogbon) and that is a big thing. Neither of them is 19 yet.

“For us that was really pleasing, we put a lot of work into them as a coaching group leading into coming out here. Small wins are there. I’m not necessarily detracting from the rest of the group’s performance, but Connor and the front row were probably two big wins for us.”

There's just no stopping Cusick ?#WorldRugbyU20s | @EnglandRugby pic.twitter.com/YQ4SQertsY

— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) June 24, 2023

Next up for England is Fiji in Stellenbosch on Thursday, while Ireland will take on Australia in Paarl earlier that day. What will the Mapletoft message be to his squad? “We have got to recover well, that is the most important thing. Not a lot of lads play with the five-day turnaround, and it will be a different type of test against Fiji, a different approach to the game and we are going to have to make changes.

“People will get opportunities to get into the squad. It’s a squad effort, it’s a support staff effort. We stressed that from word go and the tighter he can be off the pitch performances will look after themselves hopefully.”

One element that Mapletoft will be leaning on is the input of Brian Ashton, the 2007 Rugby World Cup final boss who is part of the U20 backroom staff. “I picked this up after Alan left for Leicester three or four weeks ago so it has been a bit of a bit of a baptism of fire for me personally, but it has been brilliant to be able to lean on Brian.

“He is a top-class operator, been to World Cup finals, been around the game for a long period of time, and just little things like how caring you are around the players but also how demanding you have to be, there is a really fine line.

“Luckily, I have been coaching long enough to have experienced that and you learn your lessons along the way. I have learned lessons from doing this previously, I had 10 years at Quins, amazing experiences up and down, how to deal with players, what happens when things aren’t going so well, and how do you react under pressure.

“Brilliant to be able to lean on Brian. He has been an integral part of the group through the Six Nations and over here.”