Signed by the Bath senior academy in 2023, the 19-year-old tighthead was an age-grade Six Nations winner with Mark Mapletoft’s England before travelling on to South Africa and becoming a world champion last July.
While the optimum number of matches for senior players has been set at 30, it is lower for the U20s and an interesting reference was made about Bath’s Billy Sela regarding where this game time at club level might happen.
England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
The All Blacks showed up a weakness at the coal face which showed England need to bring powerful new scrummagers through
The reigning age-grade Six Nations champions completed their Pool C campaign with a gruelling 17-12 win over South Africa last Tuesday at Athlone.
The hat-trick scoring jack Bracken wasn’t the player that coach Mark Mapletoft reserved special praise for in the aftermath of the 40-21 win over Argentina.
It will be round three in Athlone on July 9 when that fancied duo – last year’s beaten semi-finalists – go head-to-head in an intriguing group that also contains a dangerous Argentina and a little known Fiji.
Coventry taught England U20s a valuable lesson as the club marked their 150th anniversary in style at Butts Park Arena.
The English were denied a shot at the Grand Slam by Ireland’s last-gasp, game-levelling converted try at The Rec last Friday.