Will it be third time lucky for Eng U20?

Richard Hill believes that his talented young trio can help England U20s make it third time lucky at this year’s IRB U20 World Championship.

Saracens hooker Jamie George, a member of last year’s team that lost to New Zealand in the final, and loose forwards George Kruis and Jackson Wray were this week named in the 26-man squad for the tournament in Argentina this June and Hill, himself a World Cup winner, is full of praise for the youngsters he mentors.

“England have reached the last two Junior World Cup finals and now they want to go one step further,” he told RFU Podcast.

“They’ve had some encouraging results this season. The Ireland game didn’t go in their favour [in the absence of their Guinness Premiership players England lost 25-10] but I think that will act as a motivator; in some of the teams I’ve been in we’ve had some severe setbacks in the road to reach that one big goal.

“They’ve each been playing exceptionally well for our Storm team [in the A league] and you’ve got to give full credit to all three for looking at their own games, working exceptionally hard and coming back as very strong and complete players.”