England Under-20 Head Coach Rob Hunter has named his squad of 26 for the Junior World Championship (JWC) tournament in Italy this summer – and it features Matt Kvesic and Andy Short from Worcester Warriors.
The squad – that will kick-off against Ireland on June 10 – contains players with a huge amount of Aviva Premiership, A-League and Championship experience, and Hunter is pleased with the players at his disposal.
“We’re very happy with the 26 selected,” he said. “It wasn’t easy to narrow it down, we had a lot of competition, but a lot of the lads played well throughout the 6 Nations and deserve their seat on the plane to Italy.”
England face Ireland in their JWC opener, just three months after beating them 46-16 in Athlone to secure their 6 Nations Grand Slam, but Hunter says they will be a different proposition in Italy.
“The JWC is a very different competition to the 6 Nations,” he said. “There are a lot of games in a relatively short amount of time. The first one against Ireland, when everyone is fresh, will be very tough. No matter who rocks up in an Ireland shirt, they will always play with incredible pride, and incredible passion.”
With a near full strength squad at his disposal, Hunter was quick to praise those missing out through injury, saying:
“It’s a real shame for both Jamie Elliott and Kieran Low who both miss out unfortunately, they both performed really well throughout the 6 Nations but it’s up to the guys who have come in to reproduce that form.”
England U20 2011 Junior World Championship squad
Forwards
Mako Vunipola (Bristol Rugby)
Ryan Bower (Leicester Tigers)
Will Collier (Harlequins)
Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks)
Koree Britton (Gloucester Rugby)
Rob Buchanan (Harlequins)
Mikey Haywood (Northampton Saints)
Joe Launchbury (London Wasps)
Sam Twomey (Harlequins)
Charlie Matthews (Harlequins)
Sam Jones (London Wasps)
Matt Everard (Leicester Tigers)
Matt Kvesic (Worcester Warriors)
Alex Gray (Newcastle Falcons)
Backs
Chris Cook (Bath Rugby)
Dan Robson (Gloucester Rugby)
George Ford (Leicester Tigers)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Ryan Mills (Gloucester Rugby)
Guy Armitage (London Irish)
Elliot Daly (London Wasps)
Jonathan Joseph (London irish)
Andy Short (Worcester Warriors)
Marland Yarde (London Irish)
Christian Wade (London Wasps
Ben Ransom (Saracens)
England U20 JWC schedule:
Friday June 10
Eng v Ire: Treviso 18.10 (local time)
Tuesday June 14
Eng v Scot: Treviso 18.10
Saturday June 18
Eng v SA: Padova 20.10
Wednesday June 22
Semi-finals: Treviso 18.00 or 20.10
Sunday June 26
Finals: Padova 17.00 or 19.10