The side, coached by Nigel Redman and Mark Mapletoft, goes into the tournament following a Grand Slam of victories in this season’s U20 Six Nations competition. The 26-man squad will be captained by London Wasps No.8 Hugo Ellis and includes sixteen players who have appeared in the Guinness Premiership.
Among those called up are Miles Benjamin, the Worcester Warriors wing who finished third in the Guinness Premiership try-scoring charts, and Calum Clark, the Leeds Carnegie flanker who is the youngest forward to appear in the top flight. The latter is one of five players in the squad yet to be capped at this level. The others are Newcastle Falcons full back Alex Tait, Gloucester wing Charlie Sharples, Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes and London Irish hooker James Clark.
England U20 are seeded sixth for the Junior World Championships and play their Pool C games at Rodney Parade, Newport against Fiji U20, Canada U20 and Australia U20 on June 6th, 10th and 14th respectively. They are completing their preparations with a training camp in Bristol this week and reassemble in Newport on June 2nd 2008.
Redman said: “We’re delighted to be able to announce an exciting squad and there was plenty of competition for selection, particularly in the front-row of the scrum and in the back-three. We’ve made a lot of progress this season but now all we can do is concentrate on our first game against Fiji and make sure we’re well-prepared. We’re enjoying a good training week in Bristol and we meet up again on June 2nd when everything will be focused on that first game at Rodney Parade.”
Ellis said: “Captaining England at the Junior World Championships is a great honour for me and I want to do the best job I can to help bring the best out of a very talented group of players. We’re in a very exciting position and have gone from strength to strength in the last few months. But now we have to build on that, go into the tournament and earn the respect of our opponents all over again.”
England U20 Forwards: Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie), James Clark (London Irish), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Matthew Cox (Worcester Warriors), Hugo Ellis (London Wasps), Jon Fisher (London Irish), Scott Freer (Leeds Carnegie), Gregor Gillanders (Leicester Tigers), Joe Gray (Northampton Saints), Scott Hobson (Cornish Pirates), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Billy Moss (Bath Rugby), Ben Thomas (Saracens)
England U20 Backs: Miles Benjamin (Worcester Warriors), Noah Cato (Saracens), Luke Eves (Bristol Rugby), Alex Goode (Saracens), Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons), Mark Odejobi (London Wasps), Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby), Joe Simpson (London Wasps), Seb Stegmann (Harlequins), Alex Tait (Newcastle Falcons), Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
