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Two England changes for World U20 Championship final versus France

Finn Carnduff leads out England for last Sunday's semi-final win over Ireland (Photo by Carl Fourie/World Rugby)

Six Nations champions England have unveiled a team to play France in Friday’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town that has two changes from last Sunday’s semi-final win over Ireland. Mark Mapletoft’s side demonstrated their ability to squeeze teams in that last four success, holding the Irish scoreless in the second half to win 31-20 after leading 22-20 at the interval.

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The final has now pitted them against France, an opposition they beat 45-31 in Pau on March 15 to clinch the age-grade Six Nations title. Following on from the Cape Town Stadium success last weekend over the Irish, England have confirmed one change to their starting pack and another to their back line.

Nathan Michelow was an early departure in the semi-final and Kane James, who replaced him at No8, will now start with Arthur Green coming onto the bench to fill the spot that James had. 

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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

In the backs, the sole alteration comes at midfield where Ben Waghorn has been named at outside centre. Angus Hall, who started the last day, slips to the bench with Toby Cousins missing out as the 23rd man.

Mapletoft said: “The last few days have been a good reminder of the hard work we have all put in to ensuring the development of this group. We are extremely proud to get to the final, but we cannot lose focus of the challenge in front of us. Since beating Ireland we have talked about taking even greater ownership.

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“We have shown that in abundance in our last few games and it encapsulates what this squad is about. We expect nothing less come Friday. We will approach the game with the same fearlessness and resilience that has been so important to this point. We want to make our family, friends and all England supporters proud.”

France, meanwhile, have changed two of their starting XV for the final following their 55-31 hammering of New Zealand in the semi-final. Left winger Hoani Bosmorin is absent, with his place taken by Xan Mousques, a sub the last day.

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In the pack, Lino Julien, who started at tighthead against the Baby Blacks, switches to loosehead for the benched Samuel Jean-Christophe, allowing Thomas Duchene to come back at No3.

ENGLAND (vs France, Friday): 1. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2. Craig Wright, 3. Afolabi Fasogbon, 4. Joe Bailey, 5. Junior K’poku, 6. Finn Carnduff (capt), 7. Henry Pollock, 8. Kane James; 9. Ollie Allan, 10. Benjamin Coen; 11. Alex Wills, 12. Sean Kerr, 13. Ben Waghorn, 14. Ben Redshaw; 15. Ioan Jones. Reps: 16. James Isaacs, 17. Cameron Miell, 18. James Halliwell, 19. Olamide Sodeke, 20. Arthur Green, 21. Lucas Friday, 22. Josh Bellamy, 23. Angus Hall.

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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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