Young Gun: Max Green – England U20s scrum-half

Max Green has had a stellar start to 2016 and he can now call himself a professional rugby player after signing a two-year deal with Yorkshire Carnegie last week.
The scrum-half originally missed out on the England EPS squad for the Six Nations but on the back of two noticeable appearances for Yorkshire Carnegie in January he was called up as an injury replacement for Northampton’s Alex Mitchell before the Six Nations.
Four starts in four games later, the 20-year-old has emerged as the stand-out player for Jon Callard’s side.
With the tournament taking a break last week, he returned to his club and put pen to paper on a new contract that will see him stay at Headingley for another two years.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better in this Six Nations so far,” he told The Rugby Paper. “I came in as a not well-known name but I managed to start every game. Playing alongside my mates from Yorkshire Carnegie has been great, too.
“There’s no substitute for game-time at my age and Carnegie have provided me with a great platform to develop and keep improving my skills. Being coached by Bryan Redpath has been massive for me, too.
“I’m picking things up every week by playing, whether that’s from the opposition or the other players in the squad.
“Someone like Kevin Sinfield has been a huge asset to us and playing alongside him was great even if, being a Bradford Bulls fan, he wasn’t my favourite player growing up!
“I’ve been at the club since I was 15 so I couldn’t be happier to have signed a professional contract.  Hopefully, we can win promotion to the Premiership and I can make the No.9 shirt my own in the future and become a leader.”
The Six Nations campaign hasn’t been the easiest for England who, despite having one more game to play, have already surrendered their title to Wales.
But there is still a Junior World Cup in Manchester to get ready for and Green wants to see some improvement in the last game against France to end on a good note.
He said: “We’ve been looking at our defence and changed some things to make sure we hold our shape. We’ve also worked on our attacking lines so we can make the best of our pack who have been doing really well.
“The Six Nations might be out of reach but we’ll go down fighting and we have a World Cup to prepare in June too.
“I’ve got a big role to play as a scrum-half. We’ve got to be on the ball quickly and be a perfect link between the pack and the backs.”