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England U20 Men

4 Jul 2023 | 4 min |

England U20 Men's team to face Australia

Mark Mapletoft has named his England U20 Men's side to face Australia in their final World Championship pool fixture.

England come into the fixture off the back of a 34-34 draw with Ireland in round one, and a 53-7 victory over Fiji in round two of the tournament. 

Date Tuesday 4 July
Venue Athlone Sports Stadium, Cape Town
Coverage World Rugby
Kick off 13:00 BST 

Leicester Tigers’ Lewis Chessum captains the side from the five jersey and is joined by Finn Carnduff in the second row. 

Asher Opoku-Fordjour starts at loosehead prop with Afolabi Fasogbon packing down on the other side of the scrum at tighthead, while Nathan Jibulu will wear the number 2 shirt.  

Behind them in the pack, Nathan Michelow (blind-side flanker), Greg Fisilau (open-side flanker) and Chandler Cunningham-South (no. 8) are confirmed as the backrow.  

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Charlie Bracken and Connor Slevin are the side’s starting halves, with Joseph Woodward and Rekeiti Ma’asi-White combining in the midfield.   The back three sees Cassius Cleaves and Jacob Cusick take their places on the wings and Sam Harris is the fullback.   Finn Theobald-Thomas, Archie McArthur, James Halliwell, Harry Browne, Tristan Woodman, Nye Thomas, Joe Jenkins and Louie Johnson are the replacements.   The match against Australia is the third of England’s three pool matches, with a full playing schedule is available on the World Rugby website.   Mapletoft said: “This is a tough tournament with tight turnarounds and after a particularly physical game against Fiji, I’ve been pleased with the response from the players to make sure they’re ready to face Australia.   “The Aussies have historically been one of the best performing sides in the tournament, but we came to South Africa wanting to play and beat the best sides, so we’re relishing this opportunity.   “We’re not thinking about who we’ll face in the tournament’s next stage, we’re solely focused on our next task at hand starting with Australia on Tuesday.”

England U20 Men 

Starting XV

15 Sam Harris (Bath Rugby) 
14 Jacob Cusick (Leicester Tigers) 
13 Rekeiti Ma'asi-White (Sale Sharks) 
12 Joseph Woodward (Leicester Tigers) 
11 Cassius Cleaves (Harlequins) 
10 Connor Slevin (Harlequins) 
9 Charlie Bracken (Saracens) 
1 Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks) 
2 Nathan Jibulu (Harlequins) 
3 Afolabi Fasogbon (Gloucester Rugby) 
4 Finn Carnduff (Leicester Tigers) 
5 Lewis Chessum (Captain, Leicester Tigers) 
6 Nathan Michelow (Saracens) 
7 Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs) 
8 Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins) 

Replacements 

16 Finn Theobald-Thomas (Leicester Tigers) 
17 Archie McArthur (Gloucester Rugby) 
18 James Halliwell (Bristol Bears) 
19 Harry Browne  (Harlequins) 
20 Tristan Woodman (Sale Sharks) 
21 Nye Thomas (Sale Sharks) 
22 Joe Jenkins (Bristol Bears) 
23 Louie Johnson (Newcastle Falcons)