By Duncan Wood
June 12 2002

The England U21 team to face New Zealand in South Africa on Friday has been named. Two members of the Bristol Shoguns Academy are named in the starting lineup including scrum half Paul Hodgson, pictured on the left.

Scrum half Paul Hodgson and Newport bound centre, Alex Cadwallader, have both been named in the starting lineup for England to face their New Zealand counterparts in the IRB Under 21 World Rugby Championship's at Ellis Park in South Africa on Friday.

Bristol originally had 4 players named in the England squad but Chris Morgan (hamstring) and Andrew Higgins (neck) had to withdraw due to injury. It was particularly harsh on Morgs (left) who suffered the injury in last Saturday's U21 Championship final against Wasps and had to limp out after only 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Higgins will also have been disappointed but he did at least get to feature in the same tournament in Australia last summer when he toured alongside Phil Christophers and Sean Marsden.

Hodgson had made 22 appearances for the Bristol U21 team this season not counting the playoffs, scoring 6 tries in the process. He sat on the bench on first team duty on several occasions without getting the chance to get onto the field.

Alex has been with Bristol since 1998 although his first team chances have been limited and he has chosen to move onto Newport in a bid to get more first team rugby.

England will also face Argentina on June 18 and Italy on June 21.

The full team is as follows:

ENGLAND: Tom Voyce (Bath): Simon Hunt (London Irish), Adam Billig (Leicester Tigers), Alex Cadwallader (Bristol Shoguns), John Rudd (London Wasps); Matthew Honeyben (Saracens), Paul Hodgson (Bristol Shoguns); Michael Holford (Leicester Tigers), James Buckland (Northampton Saints), Mark Irish (Gloucester), Stuart Hooper (Saracens), Martin Purdy (London Wasps), Ian Clarke (Leeds Tykes), James Scaysbrook (Bath), Mark Soden capt (Northampton Saints).

Reps: Ben Gotting (London Wasps), Nick Cox (Gloucester), Phillip Davies (Sale Sharks), Mike McCarthty (London Wasps), Ben Hampson (Saracens), Sam Vestey (Leicester Tigers), Ed Thrower (London Irish).