Northampton Saints' Tom Litchfield has been named on the wing for England Under-20s ahead of their U20 Six Nations clash with Ireland on Thursday (1 July, kick-off 8pm).
Litchfield – who made his U20s debut in the tournament opener – has been handed his first start at that level by England head coach Alan Dickens and will run out on the wing at Cardiff Arms Park.
Both sides head into the clash unbeaten so far in the tournament and Dickens has made three other changes to his starting line-up ahead of Thursday's clash (live on EnglandRugby.com, England Rugby Facebook and Six Nations Rugby YouTube channel).
Dickens said: “I’ve been pleased with the squad’s preparation for this match. There were areas we knew we could improve on again from the Scotland game and so we’ve worked on that in training this week.
“We will be coming up against a strong Ireland side who have also started with two wins to this year’s competition, so we know how tough a challenge it is going to be.
“Our performance has been building through the tournament and we’ve been improving with each game. I want to see that again when we take to the pitch on Thursday night.”
IRELAND U20s vs ENGLAND U20s
2021 U20s Six Nations
Thursday 1 July, 2021
Cardiff Arms Park
Kick-off: 8pm
15 Charlie Atkinson (Wasps)
14 Tom Litchfield (Northampton Saints)
13 Jack Bates (Bristol Bears)
12 Dan Lancaster (Leeds Tykes)
11 Arthur Relton (Exeter Chiefs)
10 Fin Smith (Worcester Warriors)
9 Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers) (C)
1 Phil Brantingham (Newcastle Falcons)
2 Sam Riley (Harlequins)
3 Harvey Kindell-Beaton (Saracens)
4 Arthur Clark (Gloucester Rugby)
5 Alex Groves (Bristol Bears)
6 Ewan Richards (Bath Rugby)
7 Jack Clement (Gloucester Rugby)
8 Nahum Merigan (Bath Rugby)
Replacements:
16 Archie Vanes (Leicester Tigers)
17 Tarek Haffar (London Irish)
18 Luke Green (London Irish)
19 Freddie Thomas (Gloucester Rugby)
20 Ollie Stonham (Saracens)
21 Josh Gray (Gloucester Rugby)
22 Tom Carr-Smith (Bath Rugby)
23 Tommy Mathews (Hartpury University RFC)
24 Phil Cokanasiga (London Irish)
25 Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
26 Orlando Bailey (Bath Rugby)
England men’s U20 Six Nations results and fixtures (all at Cardiff Arms Park)
- Saturday 19 June: England 38-22 France
- Friday 25 June: England 31-12 Scotland
- Thursday 1 July: Ireland v England, KO 8pm
- Wednesday 7 July: Wales v England, KO 8pm
- Tuesday 13 July: England v Italy, KO 2pm
