England U20 head coach Mark Mapletoft has made two changes to his side for the second-round meeting with France in Bath on Friday.
Northampton Saints flanker Henry Pollock is set to start for England U20 on Thursday against Ireland U20 at Cork's Virgin Media Park in the first match of their U20 Six Nations title defence.
The defending age-grade Six Nations and World Rugby Championship holders have retained the still-underage Josh Bellamy, Jack Bracken, Ben Coen, Kane James and George Timmins while also appointing Dave Walder, the ex-Newcastle boss, as an assistant.
The Chiefs director of rugby was set to travel to Topham on a spying mission on Wednesday afternoon to watch Exeter University open their campaign against Loughborough Students.
Rob Baxter has insisted that his Exeter recruitment drive hasn’t ended despite Tuesday’s confirmation of the signings of midfielder Tamati Tua from the Brumbies and loosehead Kwenzo Blose from the Stormers.
The Top 14 giants are still locked in talks with the Sharks as they look to agree on a transfer fee for the double Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks skipper, and they could be concluded as early as next week.
England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
A green bottle of Castle Lite was suddenly the beverage of choice… and why not? England had just been crowned champions. “I've already necked two,” he chucked.
Mark Mapletoft’s side demonstrated their ability to squeeze teams in that last four success, holding the Irish scoreless in the second half to win 31-20 after leading 22-20 at the interval.
Two points up at the break, Mark Mapletoft’s side took a firm grip on the previously frenetic exchanges and the second period became a slow death for the Irish.