Samson Ma’asi and Alex Coles both start for England under-20s against Scotland this Friday evening as the Red Rose take to the Franklin's Gardens turf in Northampton.
Steve Bates has named his side for the final round of the 2019 under-20s Six Nations, with England making eight changes in search of their third win of this year's Championship after defeating France and Italy.
Hooker Ma'asi makes his first start of this year's competition after coming off the bench against Wales and Italy, while lock Coles completes a Six Nations clean sweep with his fifth straight involvement for the Red Rose.
Bates said: “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.
“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 U20s vs SCOTLAND U20s
Under-20s Six Nations Championship, Round 5
Friday 15 March 2019
Franklin's Gardens
Kick-off: 7.45pm
15 Tom de Glanville
14 Ollie Hassell-Collins
13 Ollie Lawrence
12 Cameron Redpath
11 Arron Reed
10 Manu Vunipola
9 Ollie Fox
1 Kai Owen
2 Samson Ma'asi (Northampton Saints)
3 Joe Heyes
4 Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
5 James Scott
6 Tom Willis
7 Aaron Hinkley
8 Rusiate Tuima
Replacements:
16 Alfie Barbeary
17 Olly Adkins
18 Alfie Petch
19 Jon Kpoku
20 Richard Capstick
21 Gus Warr
22 Kieran Wilkinson
23 Josh Hodge
