The All Blacks showed up a weakness at the coal face which showed England need to bring powerful new scrummagers through
Mark Mapletoft's young bucks have tasted glory but is there now a clear pathway to Steve Borthwick's senior team?
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.
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 English were impressive 40-21 comeback winners over Argentina on opening day at the Championship last Saturday and coach Mark Mapletoft has decided to rotate his team for their second outing with skipper Finn Carnduff, Ollie Allan and Oli Spencer the three repeat picks.
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.
The English were denied a shot at the Grand Slam by Ireland’s last-gasp, game-levelling converted try at The Rec last Friday.
Mark Mapletoft and Andy Titterrell have made four changes to the England U20 starting XV that narrowly lost to Bath United last week to take on Oxford University in their final match before the U20 Six Nations.
Exeter Chiefs have named a 39-man squad to play Bristol Bears in a pre-season match that will feature two separate starting teams and a shared bench.
Exeter Chiefs are reported to be close to signing Leinster secondrow Jack Dunne, in the process beating a rival Irish province to the punch for the hulking forward.