By BEN JAYCOCK
Preview: Italy U20s vs England U20s (Friday, 7:15pm)
England U20s are chomping at the bit ahead of their clash with an Italy side that has had the better of them in recent years.
Two years ago Italy shocked then Alan Dickens' side with a 6-0 triumph in Treviso and beat England again 38-31 later in the year during the Summer Series before taking another scalp last year by beating tournament hosts South Africa in the 2023 World Championship.
England saw off Italy 32-25 in last year's Six Nations in a closely fought contest at Kingsholm but with an Italian side equipped with numerous experienced second year U20s players, particularly in the front row, Mark Mapletoft's side will have to be cautious of a team the former Harlequins coach is full of admiration for.
He told The Rugby Paper: “The boys are really excited and they've been training well, I look forward to seeing where we're at. An obvious strength of theirs is the front row, who all played in Cape Town during the summer. They are good practitioners and we know we're going to have to do well technically in that space and same with their maul as well.
“Their age grade setup has got a lot better. I remember when Conor (O'Shea) went over in 2016 he took Stephen Aboud with him and they completely revamped their age grade work. We've seen the benefits of that in the last two or three years where they've been more competitive and have fast tracked players through. Our lads won't underestimate Italy, those days are long gone.”
Leicester Tigers back row Finn Carnduff will lead the team after being named the U20 team captain for the tournament.
Carnduff is accompanied by six other capped U20 players in the matchday XV, with further experience coming from the bench in the form of forwards James Halliwell (Bristol Bears), Joe Bailey (Exeter Chiefs) and Nathan Michelow (Saracens).
Sale Sharks prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour and scrum-half Archie McParland of Northampton Saints arrive into the U20 national fold with 19 senior club appearances to their names across domestic and European competition this term.
All eyes will firmly be on Opoku-Fordjour, who can play either side of the scrum, given he has starred at the tender age of just 19, packing down and getting the better of the likes of Joe Marler and Mako Vunipola at scrum time this season.
Mapletoft said: “He played loosehead all of last year and did fantastically well throughout the Six Nations and into the World Cup. He's gone back to his club and they've presented him with great opportunities at tighthead, so he's got that added string to his bow that he can play both sides.”
Gloucester fly-half Rory Taylor has won the battle for the 10 jersey beating Harlequins' Josh Bellamy to the start and looks set to be England's primary goal kicker for the tournament.
On Taylor's selection, Mapletoft added: “They are both fresh out of school and we don't have a huge amount of depth at 10 in the younger age group. Unfortunately players like Sam Harris, Sam Worsley who have been around this space, are just the wrong side of the cut off. They've both played for the U18s previously and it should be a good battle.
“Rory's got the nod this week, he's demonstrated good levels of game control, hasn't played a huge amount of rugby this year but is coming to the boil nicely. It'll be a good battle between the two of them. They get on really well off field which is important in such a competitive position.”
During last year's tournament, in which England finished fourth, they conceded 160 points in their five matches, averaging 32 points per game and in Mapletoft's first games in charge away in Georgia last summer, the group suffered a 40-38 defeat after winning the first test 41-36.
A commendable fifth place finish in last summer's World Championship showed a clear resurgence but Mapletoft's men still conceded on average 37 points per outing, including a staggering 52 in the semi-final against France.
Italy finished third in last year's Six Nations but failed to impress in the World Championship ending in 11th and will be desperate to get back to winning ways Friday night.
“The boys are ready, we are feeling good ahead of the match”, said head coach Massimo Brunello.
“We know it will be very tough, we have our usual objective, to be competitive from the first to the last minute and try to make it our own if the opportunity arises. We will have to be ready to handle the individual battle, to win it physically, managing to keep England's ability to move the ball into space under control.
“We will certainly have to avoid making big mistakes, last year in Gloucester they cost us the match and none of us have forgotten that.”
Teams
Italy U20: 15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Marco Scalabrin, 13 Federico Zanandrea, 12 Nicola Bozzo, 11 Lorenzo Elettri, 10 Martino Pucciarello, 9 Lorenzo Casilio; 1 Federico Pisani, 2 Nicholas Gasperini, 3 Marcos Gallorini, 4 Tommaso Redondi, 5 Giacomo Milan, 6 Piero Gritti, 7 Luca Bellucci, 8 Jacopo Botturi
Replacements: 16 Valerio Siciliano, 17 Sergio Pellicciolli, 18 Davide Ascari, 19 Samuele Mirenzi, 20 Cesare Zucconi, 21 Mattia Jimenez, 22 Francesco Imberti, 23 Patrick de Villiers
England U20: 15 Ben Redshaw, 14 Toby Cousins, 13 Ben Waghorn, 12 Sean Kerr, 11 Alex Wills, 10 Rory Taylor, 9 Archie McParland; 1 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2 Craig Wright, 3 Billy Sela, 4 Olamide Sodeke, 5 Junior Kpoku, 6 Finn Carnduff (c), 7 Henry Pollock, 8 Zach Carr
Replacements: 16 Jacob Oliver, 17 Scott Kirk ,18 James Halliwell, 19 Joe Bailey, 20 Nathan Michelow, 21 Ben Douglas, 22 Josh Bellamy, 23 Ollie Spencer
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