Like the Seniors, the U20’s also kickstarted their six nations campaign off with a victory over the Azzurri last Friday, beating them comfortably 36-11 with Henry Pollock stealing the show.
Pollock, who is just 19-years-old, indicated that he has the potential to possibly even step up to a senior role with a hat-trick hero performance and is already on Steve Borthwick’s radar.
The Northampton Saints flanker scored twice in the first half propelling them with a 22-6 lead at the break and then completed his treble late on, whilst also setting up Harlequins fly-half Josh Bellamy too.
Tonight he starts again as England host rivals Wales on home soil at the Recreation Ground in Bath and will be hoping to carry his form into tonights fixture.
However, the task may be a bit tougher this evening as Wales looked robust in their opener against a strong Scotland beating them 37-29 on home turf with Dragons winger Walker Price scoring twice and looking threatening.
Last years contest between the two was also a tight one ending 37-20 with England coming out on top with the help of two late tries from Ben Waghorn.
Charlie Bracken, who is a scrum-half for Saracens, featured in the fixture too and speaking on the tie he believes that the same fireworks will be sparking at the Rec tonight.
“It was a tough game last year especially playing away from home and I think they look quite good this year as well, beating beating Scotland last week.
“They’ve got some good players in there so I reckon it’ll be a tight game but playing at the Rec behind behind the crowd, who who will really get behind them, I think that will really help them.”
Alan Dickens has an abundance of talent to choose from in his squad showcase with the likes of Pollock and Bellamy and he is adding another promising name to this list tonight as Ioan Jones makes his first start for the U20’s.
The Gloucester fullback will be replacing Ben Radshaw who is moving further in-field to replace the injured Quins centres Sean Kerr and Waghorn and speaking on the occasion he said:
“I’m very excited to be playing such a big role tonight against Wales and we’ve prepared very well as a team this week so I’m looking forward to transferring that into the game tonight.
“It’s going to be tough though, they’re a really good side and looked strong against Scotland but I’m ready for it and hopefully the rest of the boys are as well.”
To hear more from the two U20’s stars as well as a bigger insight to tonights fixture, click the link below:
