Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

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. 

Video Spacer

HITS, BUMPS AND HANDOFFS! | The biggest collisions from the U20s World Championships

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 14:30
Loaded: 3.42%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 14:30
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
    • en (Main), selected
    Video Spacer

    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.

    Fixture
    World Rugby U20 Championship
    England U20
    21 - 13
    Full-time
    France U20
    All Stats and Data

    “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.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    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.

    • Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live coverage of matches from the 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship in countries that don’t have an exclusive local host broadcaster deal

    Related

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Classic Wallabies vs British & Irish Legends | First Match | Full Match Replay

    Did the Lions loosies get away with murder? And revisiting the Springboks lift | Whistle Watch

    The First Test, Visiting The Great Barrier Reef & Poetry with Pierre | Ep 6: The Ultimate Test

    KOKO Show | July 22nd | Full Throttle with Brisbane Test Review and Melbourne Preview

    New Zealand v South Africa | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

    USA vs England | Men's International | Full Match Replay

    France v Argentina | World Rugby U20 Championship | Extended Highlights

    Lions Share | Episode 4

    Trending on RugbyPass

    Comments

    0 Comments
    Be the first to comment...

    Join free and tell us what you really think!

    Sign up for free
    ADVERTISEMENT

    Latest Features

    Comments on RugbyPass

    J
    JW 11 minutes ago
    Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

    Nice, that’s good to hear, I was worried for the tackler and it increasing concussions overall.


    My question is still the same, and the important one though. Where the rate of concussions in Fed 2 high? Of course if there where only three concussions, and they were reduced now to one, then there is no need for the new laws etc.


    There are two angles to this discussion, mine above about player welfare, and of course the that which you raise, legal responsibility. More, the legal responsibility we are concerned with is what’s happening now.


    WR don’t really know much about CTE I wouldn’t think, whether it happens from innocuous things like heading a ball, or from small knocks or big knocks that don’t heal. Right now they are ensuring the backside is clean by implementing laws to rule out any possibility they didn’t do enough. So once they understand the problem more they may realise some things are overboard.


    The other legal responsibility is the one you are talking about in France, the past. Did the LNR and WR know about the severity and frequency of CTE in rugby? That is the question in that debate. If they didn’t know then theres nothing they could have done, so there is no worry. Further, what we may have now is a situation where 90% of those court actions might not happen in future thanks to the new framework we already have around HIA and head contact processes. Your English example is only going to be an issue if future players still continue to receive CTE (as that is obviously bad), as it is now, the players have taken on their own responsibility by ignore advice. No doubt some countries, like France and New Zealand, will lower their tackle height, but as long as the union has done an adequate job in advising of the severity of the problem at least the legal shadow over the community game will have gone.

    227 Go to comments
    LONG READ
    LONG READ Ben Kay: 'I've never seen a Lions team attack so well; Finn Russell is unplayable' Ben Kay: 'I've never seen a Lions team attack so well; Finn Russell is unplayable'