Where are they now: The 2014 England U20 world champions
England made it back-to-back victories at the World Rugby Under-20s Championship in 2014, defeating South Africa 21-20 in the final in New Zealand.
Members of both teams lined up against each other in the World Cup final five years later in Japan. Thomas du Toit, Jesse Kriel and Warrick Gelant all make the squad for the 2019 showcase, with Handre Pollard playing an instrumental part in the Springboks’ victory over the English in Yokohama.
Here’s what happened to the victorious England age-grade team of 2014:
15. Aaron Morris
England’s full-back was a Saracens player at the time, but he made the move to Harlequins in 2016. His game time in south-west London has steadily increased and he has seen a lot of action this season due to a spate of injuries at the club, particularly Mike Brown’s long-term knee problem.
14. Howard Packman
The former England Sevens and Northampton Saints winger recently played for North Otago in New Zealand’s Heartland Championship.
13. Nick Tompkins
A popular figure at Saracens for a number of seasons now, with a keen eye for the try line, he was picked up by Wayne Pivac’s Wales this year and went on to have an impressive Six Nations at outside centre. Despite featuring for England Saxons in 2016, he was never called upon by Eddie Jones, and Wales look to be the beneficiaries.
12. Harry Sloan
A member of the victorious Un20s squad the year before, he started at outside centre in the 2013 final against Wales. Since then, the ex-Harlequins centre had stints with Ealing and London Scottish in the Championship before making a permanent switch to Trailfinders in 2018.
11. Nathan Earle
The Harlequins winger made the move across London from Saracens in 2018 in the hope of more regular game time. This proved to be a wise choice, as he established himself in Paul Gustard’s side in a promising first season in which he was one of the Premiership’s most deadly finishers. Having toured with England in Argentina in 2017, a Test call-up may have been on the cards last season, but a devastating anterior cruciate ligament injury in April was a major setback.
10. Billy Burns
After coming through the Gloucester ranks and establishing himself as the starting fly-half at Kingsholm, he joined Ulster in 2018 knowing he was eligible to play for Ireland. He was called up to Andy Farrell’s Six Nations squad this year and although he has not yet been capped, it looks likely to happen in the future.
9. Henry Taylor
Having made the switch from Saracens to Northampton last summer, his profile has been raised this season. An injury to Alex Mitchell, along with Cobus Reinach’s World Cup duty with South Africa, meant the scrum-half thrived with more exposure under the tutelage of Chris Boyd.
8. James Chisholm
A fixture at Harlequins, the dynamic back row now plays mostly at blindside flanker due to the emergence of Alex Dombrandt at the club. Following the 2014 success, he went on to be named the World Rugby U20s Championship player of the year in 2015 as well as Harlequins’ players’ player of the year in 2017.
7. Gus Jones
The ex-Wasps flanker has played for London Welsh and Oxford University since the 2014 triumph.
6. Ross Moriarty
Another who was part of the victorious 2013 starting XV, he is no longer representing England having made his Test debut for Wales in 2015 under Warren Gatland. The bruising enforcer is now a mainstay in the Welsh squad, covering both blindside flanker and No8 and toured with the British and Irish Lions in 2017.
5. Charlie Ewels
The Bath lock made his England debut two-and-a-half years after the U20s victory, playing in the 2016 November internationals under Jones. In probably England’s strongest position, he has been in and out of the squad sporadically since then, earning 15 caps (six starting), but he re-emerged in this year’s Six Nations.
Maro Itoje and Eben Etzebeth are into the final in fans vote for the world's best lock. Get voting on our Facebook and Instagram Stories! It's 🏴vs 🇿🇦 #ENGvsRSA #EnglandRugby #Springboks pic.twitter.com/lHzwoTSpKy
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 24, 2020
4. Maro Itoje
England’s age-grade captain in 2014 and a player that needs no introduction as he has gone on to become a world rugby superstar. Since making his Test debut in 2016, the lock has simply been undroppable, even playing in all three Lions Tests against the All Blacks in 2017. An England captain in waiting and the only player from the 2014 squad to play against the Springboks in the 2019 RWC final.
3. Paul Hill
Northampton’s tighthead made his England Test debut in the 2016 Six Nations and featured in the victorious whitewash of Australia later that year. However, he is yet to win another cap, his Test career getting curtailed by various injuries.
2. Tom Woolstencroft
The ex-Bath and London Irish hooker made the move to Saracens in 2018, winning the Champions Cup and Gallagher Premiership in his first season.
1. Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi
A sub in 2013’s success, the ex-Northampton loosehead made the starting XV a year later. He moved to London Irish in 2016 and now frequently features in the Premiership.
Bench
16. Jack Walker, 17. Alex Lundberg, 18. Biyi Alo, 19. Hayden Thompson-Stringer, 20. Joel Conlon, 21. Callum Braley, 22. Sam Olver, 23. Henry Purdy
The replacements contained some regular faces in the Premiership today, but Callum Braley is the only player to have been capped internationally so far and has earned eight caps for Italy. Ex-Exeter and Saracens flanker Joel Conlon was forced to retire in 2018 at the age of 24 because of a neck injury.
WATCH: Ben Foden chats to Jim Hamilton in the latest episode of The Lockdown, the new RugbyPass series
Comments on RugbyPass
Should've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
4 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to comments