The tactic has paid off handsomely so far. Last year’s Six Nations title-winning campaign by Mark Mapletoft’s U20s was beyond him… he remembers watching at home on the BBC as they sealed glory away to France in Pau last March.
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 hat-trick scoring jack Bracken wasn’t the player that coach Mark Mapletoft reserved special praise for in the aftermath of the 40-21 win over Argentina.
Jack Bracken wasn’t part of the England squad that clinched the Six Nations U20s title 15 weeks ago, yet he was in Cape Town on Saturday justifying his recent call-up with a dream debut hat-trick.
His preparations consisted of an on-the-fly drawn two-match series in Georgia before flying to South Africa where his English young guys carved a reputation for stickiness.
South Africa U20 and England U20 will bring their World Rugby U20 Championships to a close this Friday with wholesale changes in their third place play-off encounter at Athlone Stadium.
Hand on heart, the future of international rugby is in a good place just now judging by the array of entertaining personalities that RugbyPass has encountered these past few weeks at the Junior World Championship in South Africa.
There are numerous players at the Junior World Championship who hail from families with serious reputations at the top-end of the sport... Another eye-catching family name within the England ranks is Bracken.