Referees Selected

here...

England name squad for IRB Junior World Championship



England have announced their Under 20 squad for next month’s IRB Junior World Championship in Wales.

The side, coached by Nigel Redman and Mark Mapletoft, goes into the tournament following a Grand Slam of victories in this season’s RBS Under-20 Six Nations.

The 26-man squad will be captained by London Wasps number eight Hugo Ellis and includes 16 players who have appeared in the Guinness Premiership.

Among those called up are Miles Benjamin, the Worcester Warriors wing who finished third in the Premiership try-scoring charts, and Calum Clark, the Leeds Carnegie flanker who is the youngest forward to appear in the top flight.

The latter is one of five players in the squad yet to be capped at this level. The others are Newcastle Falcons full back Alex Tait, Gloucester wing Charlie Sharples, Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes and London Irish hooker James Clark.

England are seeded sixth for the Junior World Championships and play their Pool C games at Newport against Fiji, Canada and Australia on June 6, 10 and 14 respectively.

They are completing their preparations with a training camp in Bristol this week and reassemble in Newport on June 2.



Redman said: "We’re delighted to be able to announce an exciting squad and there was plenty of competition for selection, particularly in the front-row of the scrum and in the back-three.

"We’ve made a lot of progress this season but now all we can do is concentrate on our first game against Fiji and make sure we’re well-prepared.

"We’re enjoying a good training week in Bristol and we meet up again on June 2 when everything will be focused on that first game at Rodney Parade."

Ellis said: "Captaining England at the Junior World Championships is a great honour for me and I want to do the best job I can to help bring the best out of a very talented group of players.

"We’re in a very exciting position and have gone from strength to strength in the last few months. But now we have to build on that, go into the tournament and earn the respect of our opponents all over again."

ENGLAND UNDER 20 SQUAD
Forwards (14)
Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby)
Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie)
James Clark (London Irish)
Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
Matthew Cox (Worcester Warriors)
Hugo Ellis (London Wasps)
Jon Fisher (London Irish)
Scott Freer (Leeds Carnegie)
Gregor Gillanders (Leicester Tigers)
Joe Gray (Northampton Saints)
Scott Hobson (Cornish Pirates)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Billy Moss (Bath Rugby)
Ben Thomas (Saracens)

Backs (12)
Miles Benjamin (Worcester Warriors)
Noah Cato (Saracens)
Luke Eves (Bristol Rugby)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons)
Mark Odejobi (London Wasps)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
Joe Simpson (London Wasps)
Seb Stegmann (Harlequins)
Alex Tait (Newcastle Falcons)
Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday, June 6: England v Fiji, Newport, 7pm
Tuesday, June 10: England v Canada, Newport, 5pm
Saturday, June 14: Australia v England, Newport, 3pm
Wednesday, June 18: Match day four
Sunday, June 22: Finals day

Australia are meant to be very good.

We've got a good team too, heard good things about the Clark's...thought Lawes was a back rower rather than a lock.

Scores updated and well done to England

England wing Miles Benjamin beats Fiji's Alex Rokobaro to score a try in their Pool C encounter at Rodney Parade in Newport on 6 June. Photo: Huw Evans.

from irb.com

Alex Goode with his Man of the Match Award, the England fly half having scored 16 points in their 41-17 defeat of Fiji in Pool C. Photo: Huw Evans.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:06:08:10:53:15 by England News.

Team points

South Africa 108
Australia 81
France 53
New Zealand 48
England 41
Samoa 29
Wales 29
USA 18
Argentina 17
Fiji 17
Japan 17
Scotland 17
Canada 12
Italy 10
Ireland 9
Tonga 9


Player points

Josias Ebersohn South Africa 25
Dane Haylett-Petty Australia 20
Francois Brummer South Africa 18
Alex Goode England 16
Ryuhei Arita Japan 15



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:06:08:10:55:45 by England News.

latest scores all now in

If anyone else was P@@d-off at the BBC's sudden decision NOT to show the England Game on BBCi as originally scheduled - and not even reporting on it: here's the complaint line link:

BBC Complaints

Damn it - even Eurosport are showing "some" of the games

There have been loads of complaints sent if from the Wuss board.
It's disgusting the fact that they pulled it off just to show more football and it was the same game that was on BBC1 anyway.

The Beeb have the England Aus match scheduled for BBC2 Wales on Saturday... Lets hope they keep to that schedule!!

[www.bbc.co.uk]

I agree why show more football and the same match, just typical of the Beeb's half hearted coveraged of rugby.

Mind you not according to this guy....

[grovesmedia.wordpress.com]
From sports presenter John Inverdale’s infamous “warm up act”comment during the recent Six Nations rugby tournament, to news items that might only be of interest to the south-east but which get national prominence, belief of a bias has existed for quite some time.

But the BBC is not alone in such failings.

Sports coverage invariably throws up many shining examples - indeed, although Wales won the Grand Slam during this season’s 6N the main focus of most of the national coverage was England’s roller-coaster performances. Generally speaking, the over-riding attitude appears to be that if it isn’t England it isn’t worth covering.

There is an argument to be made that such national coverage - on TV and radio and in newspapers - is merely reflecting population figures, but some of the bias is laughable at times.

Play Offs and Semi Final infor now updated