England U20s

[St Bruno]

The match is on BBC i-player from 8pm tonight.
3 Wasps start and 1 on the bench.

[Neils]

Ta looking forward to it

[WonkyWasp]

U20 are great fun.  They are knowlegable, keen and SO enthusiastic.  super to watch.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Agreed. I used to really enjoy watching them when I had Sky but topped following them when I stopped my subscription. Time to make an effort tonight.

[Neils]

Alfie Bell is a tall lad.

[hopwood]

Amazing pace from a couple of the young backs.
Two or three tries scored from running it out from their own 22.


Well worth catching the highlights for that alone.

[hopwood]

Grayson is quite similar to Spink.
A tough competitor with bags of potential.

[Heathen]

Good win. Hard fought match.

[JonnyD]

Really glad to be back watching the U20s again, have not seen them regularly for a few years now.
Not bad at all from the Wasps boys.

Alfie Bell is a giant and probably still has a lot of filling out to do. He seemed very vocal on huddles too, not sure if he was calling the lineout but put in a great shift.

Kofi Cripps was good, very disruptive from 7 at ruck time with some timely interventions, some powerful carries too but didn’t get it in much space unfortunately as he’s another forward who could play in the centres with his pace.
Fisilau replaced him in the second half and played a bit at 8 too. Nothing too much to mention but looked tidy and strong in all he did.

Ollie Dawkins was unlucky not to see more action. Was on Arundell’s shoulder the whole way for his first try but didn’t get the pass and later when Grayson made a break he went the wrong way as Dawkins would have had a walk in. The one time he did get some space from an Arundell pass he looked up too early and knocked on when he would have been in acres of space. Replaced in the second half with his replacement setting up Grayson’s try immediately. Wonder if Dawkins might sit out next week although didn’t do much wrong.

Grayson looked good at 12 as did Arundell at 15. Harrison the Scotland hooker who played for us for one game on loan was good as was Leatherbarrow who’ll definitely push on to the main Scotland squad one day.
Good fun and looking forward to the next one

[Neils]

Have to agree with that assessment on our players. The score I feel was a bit unfair on the Scottish lads as the match did seem tighter than the score suggests.

[Rossm]

How Wasps' five young stars performed for England U20s against Scotland

Report from Bobby Bridge.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/how-wasps-five-young-stars-22998076

[JonnyD]

Remember watching a horrendously bad 6-0 defeat to Worcester which was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen.
This 6-0 victory for Italy however was actually highly entertaining. Italy look like they have some great talent coming through, especially up front and we had no answer to Italy’s dominance up front. Nothing came from our half backs to try and get anything going out wide either. Should have been 12-3 final score but from pretty dire place kicking from both 10s.

From the Wasps lads, Bell was again very physical. Was subbed just after half time, took a few knocks, changes were needed and he also had played the full 80 against Scotland last week.
Fisilau got some more gametime this week and again was tidy but without many stand out moments, probably will shape up to be a 7 with his link play and size rather than a 6/8.
Dawkins came on very late and not sure he got a touch when Italy went very tight, keeping the ball close and running the clock down.

Great news if the game in Italy is growing its player base to this quality and some humble pie perhaps for our squad. A good reminder to some at this stage of their careers that they’re no longer big fish in a small pond playing school level or U18s and you’re not just entitled a win at this level. Maybe a mistake from the coaches too to experiment with their half back selection this week to get everyone game time.
Apart from Grayson again the backs looked poor. (Arundell required by London Irish this week I believe)