England U20s can turn around their season under Haag

It’s fair to say that it’s been a season to forget for the England U20 squad.

Despite lofty expectations coming into the tournament, England finished a lowly fifth in the U20 Six Nations this year, managing just a solitary win over Italy, as they fell to their worst-ever finish in the tournament’s nine-year history.

As a consequence, the RFU moved quickly to snare Nottingham head coach Martin Haag as the new long-term coach for the age-grade side, with the former Bath lock’s duties beginning this summer as he attempts to turnaround the fortunes of the side before they host the World Rugby U20 Championship in Manchester.

Haag will have the benefit of being able to look back at those U20 Six Nations matches to get an idea of what he has at his disposal before the squad meets again and begins its preparations for the World Championship.

The squad needs to be shaken up, but there are certainly positive elements that he can build on this summer, most notably the dominant scrum the group displayed. When Yorkshire Carnegie’s Jack Walker was sandwiched between Wasps props Tom West and Will Stuart in the front row, England dismantled Scotland’s scrum with ruthless efficiency.

Worcester’s Jack Singleton replaced Walker when the Yorkshire hooker picked up an injury and with the Wasps duo either side of Singleton, England continued to dominate the set-piece in their next two games against Italy and Ireland. The wheels started to come off the scrum a little bit towards the end of the tournament when Jon Callard changed up his props, but there is the potential in the original unit for dominance at this year’s Championship.

It is worth noting that one of the props brought in, Jake Pope, had only recently recovered from a long-term injury and it is likely that he will be in much better shape come the summer, providing England with better depth in that department.

The issues in the second and back rows are more concerning, however.

At no point in the U20 Six Nations did it seem like England had the right balance in their back row and as has become an unwanted trend in the England U20 sides of late, their ability to compete at the breakdown was mitigated by a lack of jackaling ability and a predisposition to giving away penalties with their clearing efforts.

Impressive Worcester number eight Huw Taylor was pushed into the second row, Sale Sharks lock George Nott was shifted from the second row to blindside flanker and Harlequin Archie White made a bright start to the tournament before being required by his club. Both rows were in flux throughout the competition and never lived up to their potential.

The U20 side faced similar problems to this last year until they drafted Northampton’s Lewis Ludlam into the starting XV at the World Championship and they were instantly a better balanced side, more productive at the breakdown, and went on to make the final of the competition. Whilst both Joshua Bainbridge and Sam Smith, the current opensides in the U20 squad, offer a lot, there is no reason why Leicester’s Will Evans can’t come in and do a similar job to the one Ludlam provided last season.

The 19-year-old made his Leicester debut this season against Gloucester and shone. Even playing against Matt Kvesic, whom many believe is the answer to England’s issues at openside, Evans did not look out of his depth at all. In fact, if you were to hand out ratings for individual performances, chances are Evans stole the show, even with Kvesic turning in a fine performance.

Finding a back row with balance, sticking with it and allowing it to develop chemistry will be key for Haag this summer. With White surely available, the unit looks better already, but it would not hurt to bring Evans into the mix and see if he can provide the trio with a spark at the contact area.

Moving to the half-backs, this was an area where England really struggled. The sparse quick ball England had was often wasted and there was little-to-no direction injected beyond the eight.

Scrum-half issues were to be expected with a number of players unavailable through club duty or injured, whilst at fly-half the prodigiously talented Mat Protheroe made some scintillating breaks, but the back line was rarely orchestrated with any kind of coherency.

In fairness to Protheroe, he was dealing with horrible ball all tournament long and it would have been hard to expect too much more of him. The puzzler, however, was that Callard was using Max Malins at full-back, despite the Saracen being the standout fly-half in the Aviva Academy League last season, and limiting Protheroe’s ability to counter-attack with ball in hand by selecting him in the confines of the 10 jersey.

Both Protheroe and Malins have incredible potential at fly-half or full-back, but why Malins was not used at 10 and Protheroe at 15 is hard to fathom. Haag will not be faced with a similar dilemma, though, as the Welsh-born Protheroe doesn’t qualify to play for England at a World Rugby-run tournament.

As disappointing as it will be for England to not have a player of Protheroe’s ability available to them this summer, they should be buoyed by the availability of Theo Brophy Clews and Johnny Williams, as well as possibly Harry Mallinder, all three of whom were retained by their clubs during the U20 Six Nations.

There is a very good chance that Mallinder tours South Africa with the England Saxons, but the London Irish pair of Brophy Clews and Williams would provide England with dynamic options at first and second receiver, whilst Brophy Clews can also play at 15, should Haag decide to move Malins into his more established position of fly-half.

The experience that Brophy Clews and Williams will have picked up playing for Irish’s senior team this season shouldn’t be underestimated and both can make a big impact at the Championship.

In addition to the players who were retained by their clubs, Haag could also look at the U18 squad for help in key positions. With Callard only ever appointed in an interim role, there was little reason for him to fast-track U18 players and build towards U20 tournaments a year or two down the road, but Haag, who has been brought in on a long-term deal, will have his eyes on those subsequent tournaments.

Standouts from the current U18 squad such as Nick Isiekwe (lock), Rory Brand (scrum-half), Joe Cokanasiga and Gabriel Ibitoye (both wings) can all help solve problem positions for the U20s this season, displaying more than enough ability to make the leap up an age-grade.

Coupled with undoubted talents like Joe Marchant and George Perkins, both of whom were in devastating form for the England U20s last season, there’s no reason why Haag can’t turn around the squad’s fortunes over the coming weeks.

England have top seeding in their pool at the Championship and will kick off their campaign against Italy on June 7^th, before taking on Scotland and Australia to complete their selection of pool matches.

The talent is there and the excuses, which have thus far been valid, will soon start to run out for the England U20s.