NEWS EXTRA
ENGLAND U18 Women's head coach James Cooper has named a 28-player squad for the Six Nations Festival which will be hosted by the WRU for the first time at Colwyn Bay from March 29 to April 6.
Cooper said: “We expect our players to be daring in their approach to these fixtures and deadly in their execution – in attack, defence and the set-piece.”
Grace Banks (Sale), Tamsin Baynes (Loughborough), Aisha Jah (Loughborough), Solana Shaw de Leon (Harlequins) and Ellie Wilson (Gloucester-Hartpury) are the five uncapped players involved in the team.
Six of Cooper's cohort have experienced Six Nations rugby beforehand in the 2023 edition of the tournament: Worcester trio Natalee Evans, Haineala Lutui and Sarah Parry, Daisy Aspinall and Lucy Simpson of Gloucester-Hartpury and Evie Haskell (Loughborough).
As well as four rounds of domestic action in this season's England Rugby Centre of Excellence fixtures, the U18 Women prepared for this spring's tournament with a 29-14 win over Ireland with tries from matchday captain Aspinall, as well as Beth Candlin, Heidi Pashaei Tarighoun, Abigail Pritchard and Hayley Jones.
Each Union will play two 35-minute matches on the first two matchdays, followed by one 70-minute match on the final matchday.
The U18 Women tasted victory in four of their five fixtures in the 2023 tournament, overcoming Wales (10-0), Scotland (21-0), Ireland (14-5) and Italy (15-7) whilst missing out against France (57-10).
ENGLAND U18 WOMEN'S SQUAD
Kaya Acton, Ashton Adcock, Jasmine Adonri, Daisy Aspinall, Iley Bailey, Grace Banks, Tamsin Baynes, Gabriella Brown, Molly Bunker, Bethan Candlin, Jessica Doyle, Natalee Evans, Zara Green, Evie Haskell, Becca Jackson, Aisha Jah, Hayley Jones, Emily Lunn, Haineala Lutui, Sarah Parry, Heidi Pashaei Tarighoun, Abigail Pritchard, Lucy Simpson, Solana Shaw de Leon, Isabel van der Straaten, Joanne Vosakiwaiwai, Ellie Wilson, Ruby Winstanley
ENGLAND U18 FESTIVAL FIXTURES
Friday March 29
England v Ireland (12:00)
Italy v England (13:00)
Tuesday April 2
England v Wales (14:00)
Scotland v England (16:30)
Saturday April 6
France v England (12:00)
