England U20 name team out to deny Irish the Triple Crown
SALFORD, ENGLAND - MAY 07: Jack Van Poortvliet of Leicester feeds a pass during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers at AJ Bell Stadium on May 07, 2021 in Salford, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
England U20 head coach Alan Dickens has made four changes to the starting line-up that will face Ireland on Thursday.
For the battle between the only remaining unbeaten sides in the competition, England have handed starts to full-back Charlie Atkinson, wing Tom Litchfield, lock Arthur Clark, and No.8 Nahum Merigan.
It is the first time all four have started in this year’s U20 Six Nations, with Orlando Bailey, Deago Bailey, Emeka Ilione and Lucas Brooke.
Leicester U18s captain Ilione left the 31-12 win over Scotland in the first half after suffering what appeared to be a shoulder injury. While London Irish flanker Brooke has received a three-week suspension for making contact with the head of winger Ollie Melville, meaning he will miss the rest of the competition.
Dickens has opted to start three second rows as Ewan Richards shifts onto the blindside flank to accomodate the incoming Clark in the second row with Alex Groves.
Clark’s Gloucester teammate Jack Clement moves from the rear of the scrum to the openside to allow Merigan to start at No.8.
Dickens said: “I’ve been pleased with the squad’s preparation for this match. There were areas we knew we could improve on again from the Scotland game and so we’ve worked on that in training this week.
“A Six Nations campaign is very much a squad effort so we’ve made some changes across the match day 26 for this fixture.
“There’s a lot of competition among the group which is exactly what we want as the players drive each other to be better in every session.
“I was pleased with Charlie’s input off the bench last time out and we wanted to give him some more game time this week. We have a few positional changes too with players unavailable for selection due to injury or suspension.
“We will be coming up against a strong Ireland side who have also started with two wins to this year’s competition, so we know how tough a challenge it is going to be.
“Our performance has been building through the tournament and we’ve been improving with each game. I want to see that again when we take to the pitch on Thursday night.”
The backline sees captain Jack van Poortvliet, Fin Smith, Arthur Relton, Dan Lancaster and Jack Bates all start for the third-straight match, after contributing to England wins over France and Scotland.
Ireland prepare to face England off the back of a resounding 40-12 victory over Wales, adding to their opening day of the tournament win against Scotland.
England U20 team to face Ireland (Thursday, 8pm kick-off, U20 Six Nations Youtube channel and Facebook)
England: 15 Charlie Atkinson, 14 Tom Litchfield, 13 Jack Bates, 12 Dan Lancaster, 11 Arthur Relton, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet (c); 1 Phil Brantingham, 2 Sam Riley, 3 Harvey Kindell-Beaton, 4 Arthur Clark, 5 Alex Groves, 6 Ewan Richards, 7 Jack Clement, 8 Nahum Merigan
Replacements: 16 Archie Vanes, 17 Tarek Haffar, 18 Luke Green, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 Ollie Stonham, 21 Josh Gray, 22 Tom Carr-Smith, 23 Tommy Mathews, 24 Phil Cokanasiga, 25 Tom Roebuck, 26 Orlando Bailey
