England U20 name team to face Scotland

England U20 head coach Steve Bates has confirmed the matchday squad to take on Scotland in the final round of the U20 Six Nations to be played on Friday at Franklin's Gardens.

England are positioned third in the table with two apiece of wins and defeats in the four games and will be hoping to finish second in the table that is topped by Ireland with 18 points.

Bates has made a total of five changes from the side that played against Italy with Kai Owen, Samson Ma’asi and Joe Heyes forming new front-row while Alex Coles is named at lock.

Manu Vunipola starts at fly-half with Cameron Redpath and Ollie Lawrence named in midfield with Arron Reed coming in on the wing.

Tom Willis continues at captain while Tom de Glanville will also switch to full back for England. On the bench hooker Alfie Barbeary, lock Jon Kpoku and scrum half Gus Warr are in line for their England U20s debuts.

"We feel this Friday is a good opportunity to take a closer look at the players who have not had that much involvement during the tournament, while also including those that are returning from Premiership duty. We are mindful that making too many changes will be disruptive so we’ve tried to keep them to a minimum," said Bates.

“We are still developing our game and have very clear goals in terms of what we want to achieve on the field in terms of performance. What we’re looking for on Friday is a bit more continuity in our play and more consistency in our performance in terms of looking after the ball and managing the game.

“We’ve used a lot of players in the tournament and feel that will be beneficial for us going into the World Rugby U20 Championship in June. We can only take 28 players to the World Rugby U20 Championship and selection is going to be very difficult so for them every opportunity they have to impress us is an important one.”

England men U20s v Scotland
15. Tom de Glanville (Bath Rugby)
14. Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish)
13. Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors)
12. Cameron Redpath (Sale Sharks)
11. Arron Reed (Sale Sharks)
10. Manu Vunipola (Saracens)
9. Ollie Fox (Yorkshire Carnegie)
1. Kai Owen (Worcester Warriors)
2. Samson Ma'asi (Northampton Saints)
3. Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
4. Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
5. James Scott (Worcester Warriors)
6. Tom Willis (Wasps)
7. Aaron Hinkley (Gloucester Rugby)
8. Rusiate Tuima (Exeter Chiefs)

Replacements:
16. Alfie Barbeary (Wasps)
17. Olly Adkins (Gloucester Rugby)
18. Alfie Petch (Exeter Chiefs)
19. Jon Kpoku (Saracens)
20. Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs)
21. Gus Warr (Sale Sharks)
22. Kieran Wilkinson (Sale Sharks)
23. Josh Hodge (Newcastle Falcons)

England U20 Six Nations result and fixtures:

Ireland 35-27 England

England 31-19 France

Wales 11-10 England

England 35-10 Italy

England v Scotland
Friday, 15 March, KO 19.45