In addition to England U20, England U18, England U16, and England Counties U18, England U17 have also been in action.

They faced France U17 last weekend, losing a thriller 47-26. It was an extraordinary second half performance from the hosts in Gueugnon, who came back from 22-19 behind at half time.

England had scored three first half tries, through JJ Tonks, Ollie Lawrence, and Tom Furnival, but France came flying out in the second half, scoring eighteen points for a 37-22 lead before England managed to scrape a score back through Tom Fawcett.

It did little to stem the French tide though, and they soon had their sixth try to secure the 47-26 victory.

Speaking to www.englandrugby.com after the game, England U17 Head Coach John Fletcher said:

“I was pleased with the first-half, I thought we were really strong, it was three tries all and I thought we were the better side. We had an opportunity straight after half-time and didn’t take it. They went up the other end and scored.”

“It got scrappy and unstructured after that and they continued to play at the same intensity throughout the game and we dropped off. Overall I’m pleased, it will be a good experience for the players.”

“We could have solved a lot of problems through better awareness but what I will say is we’ve had one 45-minute training session and haven’t spent that much time together as team and that did show in terms of the players’ connectivity. This game in the long run will be really good for the players.”

France U17 47-26 England U17

England Under 17 XV:

15 Cameron Redpath, 14 Harry Barlow, 13 Tom de Glanville, 12 Ollie Lawrence, 11 Alex Bartley, 10 Kieran Wilkinson, 9 Sam Maunder, 1 Tom Marshall, 2 JJ Tonks, 3 Richard Capstick, 4 Cameron Boon, 5 Alex Coles, 6 Tom Furnival, 7 Samon Ma’asi, 8 Bevan Rodd.

Replacements: 16 Alfie Barbeary, 17 Shay O’Malley, 18 Alfie Petch, 19 George Hammond, 20 Tom Fawcett, 21 Tom Walsh, 22 Sam Spink, 23 Reece Dunn.