England have named a 45-man U20 squad for a training camp at Bisham Abbey as they begin preparations for the U20 season ahead.
The squad will gather on Thursday 28th November, staying in camp until Saturday 30th November, preparing for a season that begins with their opening U20 Six Nations fixture in France on Saturday 1st February, and ends with the World Rugby U20 Championships in Italy this June.
The camp will be led by Head Coach Alan Dickens, whose appointment to the role was announced just a couple of days ago, and his next big task after this will be to whittle down the group to a 32-man elite player squad in January.
Eight of the squad return to the U20s after featuring last year, among them Wasps’ Alfie Barbeary, who featured as a schoolboy for the side last year, heading to the World Rugby U20 Championships despite still being a pupil at Bloxham School.
In total eleven Academies are represented, with Bristol Bears and Worcester Warriors the only sides without representation. Sale Sharks and Northampton Saints are the most represented, Tom Curtis, Joseph Carpenter, Connor Doherty, Callum Ford, Raphael Quire, and Tom Roebuck representing Sale while JJ Tonks, Oliver Newman, Emmanuel Iyogun, Josh Gillespie, Thomas Freeman, and the experienced Ollie Sleightholme representing Saints.
Sleightholme is one of a number of experienced players in the squad, including Saracens’ Manu Vunipola who was been pulling the strings for his club extensively this season. He is one of five Saracens in the squad, with Leicester Tigers and London Irish also having three players each in the squad, among them Leicester’s George Martin, who captained England U18 last year, and Irish’s Phil Cokanasiga, younger brother of England star, Joe.
Harlequins and Exeter Chiefs are also well represented, with four players each, including Richard Capstick and Sam Maunder for Exeter, both of whom have a solid amount of Gallagher Premiership experience. Meanwhile Gloucester and Bath have three players each in the squad, with Wasps and Newcastle Falcons have two each.
England U20 Training Squad:
Lennox Anyanwu (Harlequins)
Alfie Barbeary (Wasps)
George Barton (Gloucester)
Harvey Beaton (Saracens)
Joseph Browning (Leicester Tigers)
Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs)
Joseph Carpenter (Sale Sharks)
Jack Clement (Gloucester)
Phil Cokanasiga (London Irish)
Tom Curtis (Sale Sharks)
Theodor Dan (Saracens)
Connor Doherty (Sale Sharks)
Ben Donnell (London Irish)
Callum Ford (Sale Sharks)
Thomas Freeman (Northampton Saints)
Josh Gillespie (Northampton Saints)
Josh Gray (Gloucester)
Luke Green (London Irish)
Gabriel Hammer-Webb (Bath)
George Hammond (Harlequins)
Will Haydon-Wood (Newcastle Falcons)
Josh Hodge (Newcastle Falcons)
Emmanuel Iyogun (Northampton Saints)
Barrie Karea (Exeter Chiefs)
George Martin (Leicester Tigers)
Sam Maunder (Exeter Chiefs)
Nahum Merigan (Bath)
Chunya Munga (London Irish)
Zachery Nearchou (Wasps)
Oliver Newman (Northampton Saints)
Max Ojomoh (Bath)
Raphael Quirke (Sale Sharks)
Sam Riley (Harlequins)
Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
Fin Rossiter (London Irish)
Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
Oliver Stonham (Saracens)
Hugh Tizard (Harlequins)
Jarett Tonks (Northampton Saints)
Rus Tuima (Exeter Chiefs)
Jack Van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers)
Manu Vunipola (Saracens)
Cahrlie Watson (Saracens)
James Whitcombe (Leicester Tigers)
