England Students have named a 44-man training squad ahead of April’s two fixtures against France Students.
Earlier in the month a group of 34 met at Stourbridge RFC for a training session under Head Coach Aaron James. This 44-man squad will be whittled down in March ahead of the BUCS Super Rugby semi finals, and will meet for a two day training camp on the 10th and 11th April before their fixtures against France on the 15th and 20th.
The squad is heavily influenced by the BUCS Super League, with only a handful of players selected from outside of that competition, including three players from Oxford and Cambridge with Varsity Match experience, two former Wellington College number 8s, Buchan Richardson (Cambridge) and Will Wilson (Oxford), as well as KCS Wimbledon leaver and current Harlequins Academy member Jake Hennessey (Cambridge).
Head Coach James spoke to www.englandrugby.com about the impact of the BUCS Super League, saying:
“The BUCS Super League has resulted in a higher level of play, which will boost England Students’ chances against a French side boasting players of professional standards, the competition has taken another step up this year, and the guys will benefit from that; the standard has to be very high to play France. We need to be at a National One standard or above.”
Among those selected from the BUCS Super League ranks, there are a number of huge names from their school rugby days, not least former St Joseph’s College and England U18 wing George Wacokecoke, now at Northumbria, and former Dulwich College captain and Schools Cup winner Felix Maddison (Exeter). Another of the many former England U18 stars and school skippers is Loughborough’s Andrew Boyce, who starred for King’s Worcester a few years ago.
Commenting on the training day and on players’ future selection hopes whether is the wider squad or out of it, James said:
“The purpose of the training day was to get to know each other, so we are ahead when we get into camp in April. The guys now understand parts of how we want to play, it has also helped us with the selection process – this just being one part of a wider assessment.”
“There is opportunity to be involved, and we’re going to do that as an international program. If you’re not in form or others are performing better than you, they deserve a shot.”
England Students Training Squad:
Ollie Adams (Loughborough)
Andrew Boyce (Loughborough)
George Davis (Loughborough)
Luke Frost (Loughborough)
Will Kaye (Loughborough)
Jack Stapeley (Loughborough)
Theo Vukasinovic (Loughborough)
Owen Waters (Loughborough)
Musa Yusuff (Loughborough)
Tom Ffitch (Loughborough)
Aaron Bagwell (Exeter)
George Gosling (Exeter)
Ted Landray (Exeter)
Simon Linsell (Exeter)
Mike Haines (Exeter)
Felix Maddison (Exeter)
James McRae (Exeter)
Sam Morley (Exeter)
Josh Pieters (Exeter)
Josh Bragman (Northumbria)
Will Muir (Northumbria)
Oliver Robinson (Northumbria)
George Wacokecoke (Northumbria)
Will Britton (Bath)
Tom Doughty (Bath)
Conrad Cade (Leeds Beckett)
James Elliot (Leeds Beckett)
Ryan Eveleigh (Leeds Beckett)
Dan Kelly (Leeds Beckett)
Harry Robinson (Leeds Beckett)
Xavier Valintine (Leeds Beckett)
James Forrester (Hartpury)
Alex Gibson (Hartpury)
Tom Pashley (Hartpury)
Luke Stratford (Hartpury)
Tim Cardall (Nottingham Trent)
David Williams (Nottingham Trent)
Max Cresswell (Bristol)
Will Goodrick-Clark (Oxford Brooks)
Jake Hennessey (Cambridge)
Buchan Richardson (Cambridge)
Dan Nutton (Newcastle)
Charlie Wilson (Durham)
Will Wilson (Oxford)
