THE England U20’s 39-21 defeat by their Irish counterparts at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night put an end to their hopes of a clean sweep.
What it also did was highlight the mess around player release for what is meant to be England’s second representative team.
The England U20s went into this crunch match without Manu Vunipola, JJ Tonks, Ben Donnell and Ollie Sleightholme, all of whom had played in the previous games, but were unavailable due to Premiership club commitments.
This is because part of the agreement between the RFU and the Premiership clubs gives the latter...