Isaac Mears is revelling in the England U18s setup due to the attacking style of play led by assistant coach Will Parkin. The 18-year-old Bath scrum-half, who is a product of Beechen Cliff School, played a key role in Jonathan Pendlebury’s side’s unbeaten Six Nations Festival, beating France in Vichy, as well as triumphs over Scotland and Spain.
England’s attack clicked into gear, scoring 143 points in their three games with Mears setting the tone with fine performances in the nine jersey. He told The Rugby Paper: “When I got invited into camp, I was super excited to go and play. When I got there, England’s playing style pushed us forward in terms of pulling the trigger and looking to move the ball with our BAM (ball, always moving) principles. It’s the sort of game I love to play.
“Will Parkin has had a big influence and it’s a positive environment. He is happy for us to try things, ‘make good mistakes’, he always says. If we want to look to move the ball, he wants us to make good decisions and push ourselves to go get better. That’s really important as a scrum-half because I’m in charge of orchestrating the attack. It’s quite different to how we play at Bath but I definitely enjoy it a lot.”
The Bath-born pivot was in attendance for the 2019 World Cup final between England and South Africa in Japan, and feels fortunate to be able to pull on the Red Rose. He cites Antoine Dupont, Jamison Gisbon-Park and Aaron Smith as his rugby role models and hopes to follow in the footsteps of current Bath starting nine Ben Spencer.
He said: “It’s been a dream since I started playing. Through watching England on TV, I always wanted to represent the badge and play for my country. The match that stands out in the memory growing up most was going out to watch the England-South Africa final, two World Cups ago. That was a pretty amazing game to go and watch, even though we lost. But the experience in Japan was amazing, that’s one of my favourite games.
“I always loved watching Aaron Smith, when I was quite young and then, as I got a bit older, I loved watching Dupont and Gibson-Park. I just love Dupont’s running game, and how he attacks, and then I always just loved Aaron Smith’s pass. I thought he had an amazing pass, and I wanted to try and get my pass as close to his as possible.”
Mears’ next step in his rugby journey takes him to university and, while he says balancing rugby alongside his studies can be a challenge, he is chomping at the bit to have a crack at BUCS Super Rugby with Bath University. He said: “I’m going to try and get a few games, get into that BUCS squad and try and perform well there.
“In terms of balancing rugby alongside education it’s been tough at times but I think you can always find time to do some work. It’s just about being able to be quite strict with your timings. If you’re planning out your day, you can know when you’ve got time to train, when you can do your extras and then you know what times you’ve got to do work and lessons.”
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