Andy Titterrell swots up on the new England U20s crop

Andy Titterrell took all of two days off to unwind from the scenes of England's U20 Six Nations glory this summer, from the champagne cork-littered pitch at the Arms Park to starting anew with the early building blocks for the new crop of youngsters who will come through in 2022 to lay down England's title defence.

There are hopes, too, that the new cycle will see a return of the Junior World Championship, last held in two years ago. A matter still under wait-and-see orders from World Rugby.

Former England hooker Titterrell joined Alan Dickens' coaching staff last season from his role as Wasps forwards coach and brought immediate rewards with last month's Grand Slam ending a four-year trophy drought.

While enjoying the success, Titterrell – who won five caps for England and toured with the 2005 British and Irish – is already looking ahead to the next challenge.

“After the Six Nations it was a couple of days off to recharge and then a few bits of administrative work,” Titterrell told The Rugby Paper. “Players disperse so we put reports together, a few playbooks and ideas, ready for the new crop that will come through for the next Six Nations campaign.

“For myself, I put together a dossier on the up-and-coming players to help enhance their learning from my findings during the Six Nations. It was my first campaign with the U20s and where we had all these zoom meetings before, I thought it would be a great way of keeping in touch with them to try and give them feedback from their tournament experience to take back and work with their club.

“When you come from a Premiership environment where you are working day in, day out, to come into the pathway group the coaching is sporadic. But it comes to a point where you have these blocks of Six Nations games and, hopefully, a World Championship as well. You are in it 24/7 and so it is nice just to take the foot off the accelerator a little bit and take a couple of days off, but coaches minds are always swelling with ideas.”

England opened the U20 Six Nations with a comeback win over reigning world champions France and book-ended the tournament with victory over to claim the Grand Slam.

So, as a new cycle begins, who were the players who he saw the biggest improvement in from the first set of regional camps held at the Three Lions' base at St George's Park to when the trophy was lifted in July?

“We had four regional games last year which were brilliant,” Titterell said. “We involved around 96 players for those and it probably took me all four of those games to piece together who they were, because we literally turned up at St George's Park and then played, there wasn't a great deal of interaction from us to the players at that point in the cycle.

“The players who stood out from day one Sam Riley was one of them, I was able to work with Sam for most of last season and go down to Harlequins and help him with his throwing. So I built up a good relationship with Sam.

“Raffi Quirke was also there for a couple of games and stood out impressively for us. JVP (Jack van Poortvliet) came to one of the regional training sessions, one of the first we had, and then obviously he was involved with Leicester in their season and we didn't see him until the Six Nations.

“But that time with Leicester was great for him because you think of all the young players who have involvement with the first team, that is where you want them to stay. It is massively important for their development that we still have that contact with them whilst they are in the Under-20s group.

“Players like Arthur Clark and Alex Groves. These guys are man mountains at Under-20s, they are bigger than some of the lads I saw when I was Under-20s. They stood out for all the good reasons and with the abilities you could see how the programme was able to impact their development during the year.

“Some of those players were in their last year and although we have had that contact for over a year, we want to keep in contact with them leading into the next couple of years and hopefully into the first team at their clubs.”

forwards coach Andy Titterrell

Titterell's time with head coach Dickens began loosely at Sale Sharks, where the two played for a season together, before becoming much better acquainted as coaches on the successful England Saxons tour to in 2016.

“I spent one year with Alan at Sale when I was about 20 years old,” says Titterell, whose 13-year playing career took in spells with , Leeds, Edinburgh and London Welsh before six years coaching at Wasps. “He then went on to Leeds and , so I have known him for a number of years now.

“I went on the Saxons tour with Dicko after my second or third year at Wasps. It was great, he is laid back during the week but once he's on the field he knows exactly what he is doing.”

Revived and rebranded as England ‘A' this year by the RFU, Titterrell knows firsthand how the A-team can act as a conduit to Test rugby.

“I had never worked with Alan prior to the Saxons and we had four weeks together with him and Ali (Hepher, England Saxons head coach in 2016). We gelled really quickly and that carried over to when I started my role with the RFU and the U20s in September of last year,” says Titterrell.

“You go through your career making friends and acquaintances within the world of rugby and with some relationships you can spend so many years apart, but when you get back together it is like you've never been away. That was certainly how it felt when I teamed up with Dicko, rather than teammates at Sale we are coaching companions at England.

“We want to try and get the best out of each other and I have learned a lot off Dicko in the last eight months. Hopefully, I will have the pleasure to learn a bit more off him in the next two or three years as well.

“As a player I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I knew how to get there. As a coach, I am not quite sure what I want to do yet. It is all still evolving and I am learning a lot more now as a coach as when I was a player.

“I see myself as a rugby coach now much more so than as a forwards coach and Dicko has helped me to view things that way with the Under-20s.”

England U20s head coach Alan Dickens. Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

“I think Conor (O'Shea) is trying to work towards getting a tour on. It has been five years since the last time an England ‘A' tour was on and unfortunately the game against was cancelled this summer.

“As a player, I was part of that progression from England ‘A' through to the Saxons and England, and it is such a great part of giving talented individuals the stepping stone in their development. Also, if you are there or there abouts with the England squad, it still allows you to carry on playing at that high level and to be exposed to that level of training.

“To be an international player you have to learn quick and think quick, that is what can set those players apart from the others. To have the ‘A' programme in place for them is hugely important to the development of the players who come out of the U20s and are also on the fringes of the senior team. I would like to see many more fixtures available to them in the years to come.”

The summer after that Saxons tour, with the experience of a 2-0 series win – plus a safari and plenty of golf – Titterell helped Wasps reach the 2017 Premiership final against Hepher's who were aiming to banish the demons of their defeat to Saracens the year before.

“After the Saxons tour, I was sat next to Ali at Twickenham during the Premiership final competing against each other,” said Titterell. “We were disappointed we didn't go over the whitewash but what Ali has achieved at Exeter in the last eight years has been huge and a credit to what has put in place. They will continue to grow as a coaching group and who knows how far they will go with the competitiveness of the Premiership now.”

Titterrell believes John Mitchell leaving England's setup to become Wasps attack coach is the biggest signing made by the Premiership club in the close season and can help put his old club back in contention.

“When any club has someone of the calibre of John join, it will only enhance the environment,” added Titterell.

“The time that I have seen him with the England set-up, he had a great rapport with the players and knew how to get his messages across. He was involved as the defensive lead but one thing I have seen coming through the pathway system is that we are coaches, we aren't necessarily labelled as ‘defence', ‘forwards' or ‘backs' coaches, you simply have an input into the way you want to play and bounce ideas off each other.

“John will bring vast experience to the group at Wasps. Lee (Blackett) is a shrewd operator as an attack coach anyway. I know he is head coach, but he will have a very clear framework of how he wants Wasps to play – he is an excellent coach. “The coaching set-up they have now will only enhance the group together. Fowkesy and Richard Blaze are there to run the forwards and Pete Atkinson running the conditioning programme, so with John coming in it bodes well for future success.”

ADAM ELLIS