England U20s v Wales U20s Team Up

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ROB MILLER is expecting a 'fast and physical' confrontation with Wales in the second round of the RBS Under-20 6 Nations at Bridgend tomorrow night.

The Newcastle Falcons fly half takes over from Kingston Park teammate Rory Clegg as England attempt to build on their 17-0 win against Italy in the opening game.

Both No.10s have appeared in the top-flight this season in place of the injured Jonny Wilkinson and Miller already has significant international experience under his belt.

The 19-year-old from Cumbria appeared against Italy, France and Scotland for last year's Grand Slam winning side, then in the IRB Junior World Championship against Fiji, Canada and New Zealand.

His verdict is England will need to improve on last week's win at Worcester but they have the resources and experience to improve throughout the season in the build-up to IRB Junior World Championship in Japan this summer.

The start was satisfactory enough with tries from Henry Trinder, Luke Eves and Seb Stegmann against Italy in game that was eventually played behind closed doors because of the Arctic conditions in the Midlands.

"The whole day was flipped on its head - first we were kicking off at 8pm, then 6.30pm and then 5.30pm with no-one watching," he said.

"We had to make sure we didn't lose focus. It was tough to begin with but there was nothing we could do other than to prepare as well as we could and then fly out of the blocks.

"But both teams managed to push the ball into wider channels than you might have expected and we scored do some good tries. It was the first time we'd played together but even though the conditions were difficult we need to be more clinical and precise, and the push is to improve on that against Wales.

"Any Wales v England game is always huge. We're in Wales and while most of the guys will have experienced it before it is a big occasion. They'll come flying out against us but we've got to attack them too. The first 20 minutes will be really fast and physical.

"The experience of being around the squad last year was a really good thing. I had a couple of opportunities in the Six Nations and in the Junior World Championship to get experience at this level and that really helps because it's so competitive.

There are plenty of guys like me, Greig Tonks, Luke Eves, Calum Clark and Seb Stegmann who have all played together for England teams at Under 16 and Under 18 level, so there are guys in key decision-making roles who all know each of the other person's skills."

The ultimate goal is for second seeds England to go one step further at the Junior World Championship after their superb run in the 2008 tournament staged in Wales.

They beat Australia and South Africa in the space of four days to reach the final, but ran out of steam against an outstanding New Zealand side to lose 38-3.

The disappointment of that night at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea has helped fuel the desire of Miller and his teammates to keep on improving skill and fitness levels.

"The New Zealand game in the final was a real eye-opener for me," he said.

"Even though we were a good team who'd played well we weren't good enough to win the final.

"It teaches you that every minute of every single session, on the pitch, in the gym, doing all the extras, standards have to be driven up so we can push on to that next level."

Is the match being televised anywhere?

Howay ligger man - it says so at the top of the tin


England U20s v Wales U20s - Friday 13th Feb., 2009
live on BBC2 Wales (Sky Channel 991) at 7pm

Wales u20s were bad last week. They do have some very good individual players but didn't play as a team.

England U20s survive scares to beat Wales at Bridgend

England completed their second leg of their RBS Under-20 6 Nations campaign by surviving some major scares to overwhelm Wales at Bridgend.

They lost two players to the sin-bin - Bath's Josh Ovens and Harlequins' Chris York - in the first half and gave away a string of penalties but still managed to put together enough fluent spells to score four well-taken tries.

Newcastle Falcons fly half Rob Miller provided a solo one and four conversions, with York, Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby) and captain Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie) also touching down.

Wales drove prop Scott Andrews over for a second half try with Jason Tovey converting and kicking three penalties.

England, at least, could point to the major surgery undertaken on their squad following their opening win against Italy with five changes to the starting line-up.

Four of them were in the back-line with full back Tom Homer (London Irish), centre Greig Tonks (Leicester Tigers), fly half Miller (Newcastle Falcons) and scrum half Dan White (Leeds Carnegie) all starting. Flanker Josh Ovens (Bath Rugby) was the one change up front.

The changes followed the recall of players by their clubs for this weekend's Guinness Premiership games with three players outside the Under 20 Elite Player Squad coming onto the bench in London Wasps lock Peter Elder, Leicester scrum half Sam Harrison and Saracens centre Mike Stanley.

While England were beating the freeze and the Azzurri 17-0 at Worcester, Wales were edged out 18-17 by Scotland at Perth, despite scoring the only two tries in the game through impressive Ospreys wing Kristian Phillips.

In the opening stages at the Brewery Field, though, it was all England from the moment Homer cut loose from his first kick reception and although Tovey missed with an early penalty shot the visitors were in front after 13 minutes.

The try was a superbly engineered one, Miller's riding a tackle and offloading inside to Tonks who put York away on a 20 metre run under the posts before his side lost their way.

They lost first Ovens and then York to the sinbin for illegally contesting rucks in the 16th and 24th minutes but even playing briefly with 13 men they only conceded a single Tovey penalty with the Wales fly half missing another eminently kickable one.

With 14 men they added a second try five minutes before the break - some patient build-up play followed by Trinder's quickly-taken penalty and burst to the line.

And with York back on they struck again moments before half-time, Seb Stegmann's powerful break down the right followed by an offload inside for Clark to score, and Miller's third successful conversion made it 21-3 at the interval.

England couldn't control the ball in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, conceding more penalties with Tovey clawing three points back then converting after Scott Andrews barged over from the back of a lineout.

When they did build some momentum, they struck back immediately with Miller's dummy and sidestep sending him through the flat-footed defence and in behind the posts on the hour.

Tovey's 64th minute penalty hauled his side back into contention but although England survived for the remainder of the game they suffered more disciplinary problems with replacement flanker Tom Sargeant the third man sin-binned by Scottish referee Neil Paterson.

Wales U20: James Loxton (Blues & Glam Wdrs); Kristian Phillips (Ospreys & Neath), Scott Williams (Llanelli), Ashley Beck (Ospreys & Aberavon), Adam Hughes (Dragons & Bedwas); Jason Tovey (Dragons; Matthew Jarvis, Ospreys & Neath 72), Rhys Downes (Blues & Pontypridd; Tavis Knoyle, Neath 41); Aaron Coundley (Dragons & Ebbw Vale; Craig Attwell, Dragons & Newbridge 61), Rhys Williams (Blues & Pontypridd; Simon Gardiner, Scarlets & Llanelli 77), Scott Andrews (Blues & Glam Wdrs; Dan Watchurst, Dragons & Bedwas 61), James King (Ospreys & Aberavon; Sam Pailor, Pontypool 75), Ashley Sweet (Dragons & Cross Keys), Jake Thomas (Cardiff; Justin Tipuric (Ospreys & Aberavon 50), Josh Navidi (Blues & Glam Wdrs), James Thomas (Dragons & Ebbw Vale, captain).

Scorers: Try: Tipuric. Conversion: Tovey. Penalties: Tovey 2

England U20: Tom Homer (London Irish); Seb Stegmann (Harlequins), Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby; Freddie Burns, Gloucester Rugby 70), Greig Tonks (Leicester Tigers), Will Hurrell (Leicester Tigers); Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons), Dan White (Leeds Carnegie); Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs), Jamie George (Saracens; James Clark, London Irish 55), Bob Baker (London Wasps; Shaun Knight, Gloucester Rugby 72), James Gaskell (Sale Sharks; Peter Elder, London Wasps 73), Graham Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), Josh Ovens (Bath Rugby; Tom Sargeant, Harlequins 74), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie, captain), Chris York (Harlequins).

Replacements: Sam Harrison (Leicester Tigers), Mike Stanley (Saracens)

Scorers: Tries: York, Trinder, C Clark, Miller. Conversions: Miller 4

Yellow cards: Ovens 16, York 24, Sargeant 77

Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU).

They played well and only one side was ever going to win, no matter how game the welsh were.

Quote:

Isaac Dix
Wales u20s were bad last week. They do have some very good individual players but didn't play as a team.

BBC commentary was saying most of the Welsh side were young, so will be back again next season, which might explain why they've looked physically smaller than Scotland & England.

3 yellows for England so might have to work on discipline a bit...

Good to get another win. Hardest tests still to come though, Scotland for example has one of their best teams at this level for a while apparently.

England (the English) clearly have great talent currently in place and coming through the system - therefore strength in depth - all this should lead to England leading the world in performance at senior level - again clearly we are not at this place...yet..attention to detail within the structure of the game is IMHO the only requirement lacking - a bit too much distraction with being caught in the headlights and celeb status (weak men) from the administrators,coaches and decision makers. Simply with greater focus on what matters, what will actually improve things is the message. Example - how on earth did a group of people with supposedly great knowledge of rugby decide it would be a good step foward to select and announce a squad of player in Sept for Feb Internations...who does this help?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:02:14:16:47:13 by Cup Half Full.

BTW it's on the BBC iplayer if you fancy watching it



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:02:14:23:15:10 by Slater582.

Usually the Wales U20 and before that the U21 were a reason for optimism but I don't see too many in the current team that are likely to step up in the next season or two. The obvious exception is Kristian Phillips who looks a natural successor to Shane at both the Ospreys and for Wales and I'd love to see what he could do with the senior team to provide him with ball. Other than that Tovey may make the grade but the rest will need to improve considerably. The lack of size is an issue particularly at lock where Wales have a 6'3" and 6'4" pairing whilst the scots were 6'7" and 6'8" when we played them and very athletic.

That said in the last couple of years the U20's have brought through AW Jones, Halfpenny, Tom James and Jamie Roberts so they have been doing something right.