England Students starting XV

England Students will face France Universities this Saturday 11th April, KO 6:30pm local time at Stade Paul Chandon, Épernay Rugby Club.

Four uncapped players have been selected to start against France Universities this Saturday 11th April—Mike Flook (Hartpury), Ed Holmes (Plymouth), Sam Brady (Leeds Beckett) and Alex Wilcockson (Exeter). Flook and Wilcockson featured in the England Students Development team against France Students Development in March.

The bench includes four more uncapped players—Sam Rodman (Leeds Beckett), Nick Gardiner (Oxford), Josh Sharp (Loughborough) and Jamie Bache (Durham) who performed well for the Development team.

Captaining the side will be Bath’s Freddie Clarke, who led the team to a 32-16 victory against Portugal XV earlier in January.

“One of our values is to work hard for each other,” said Clarke. “The commitment the boys have shown on and off the field has demonstrated this. Attitude towards training has been fantastic and we are looking forward to accepting the challenges the French will pose.”

The squad have been training at the Lensbury Club in Teddington, the home of England Sevens and will travel to France today to face France Universities on Saturday evening.

Head Coach Aaron James is positive ahead of the fixture which didn’t go England Students’s way last year. “Preparations have gone well with players picking up the game plan very quickly. We have a good group of self-motivated and talented players and as a coaching team we’re very impressed by the level of progress we’ve achieved in a short period of time.”

Last year’s fixture was played in front of more than 5,000 French supporters. The French came out on top but a number of England Students players progressed to the professional game since then:

Simon Hammersley (Newcastle Falcons)
Sean Robinson (Newcastle Falcons)
Jake Henry (Plymouth)
Mark Cooke (Bristol)
James Stephenson (Bristol)
Lovejoy Chawatama (London Scottish)
Adam Jamieson (Cornish Pirates)

England Students team to face v France Universities:

15    Alex Brown
14    Alex Wilcockson
13    Lewis Jones
12    George Boulton
11    Jack Rossiter
10    Will Cargill
9    Rob Coote
1    Mike Flook
2    Paul Davis
3    Alex Westgarth
4    Ed Holmes
5    Sam Brady
6    Joe Dancer
7    Sebastian Nagle-Taylor
8    Freddie Clarke

16    Nick Gardner
17    Piers Goodwill
18    Sam Rodman
19    Jamie Bache
20    Buchan Richardson
21    Tom Banks
22    Josh Sharp
23    Alex O’Meara