Quiet year for England U20s

The new England U20 squad has been announced for their first game, away in Paris next weekend, along with the fixtures - and it promises to be the quietest season for the age group team for sometime.

Only two Hertfordshire names make the team - Georgia Peedle and Mica Evans - which is a bit low (though with one or two Herts names fast-tracked into the senior squad, perhaps not a real concern). In fact, geographically at least, the squad is rather more balanced than the heavily South-West biased team of last year.

Overall the team look like having only five games in 2012, and against only two opponents. As the proposed European U20 tournament fell through due to the astonishing short-sighted attitudes of the Welsh and Scots, England will instead play France three times (in France on March 11th, and in England at Moulton College on 4th and 7th April). After that, as there is no U20 Nations Cup this year (again, why? What madness is this... etc.), England will instead play host to the USA for a two test series, also at Moulton College, in July.

And that is it. For the first time since the world began (or, 2002 at least) England will not play Wales. Indeed Wales seem to have no age group tests planned for this season at all, while Scotland's much trumpeted age group development policy has similarly fizzled out after a single season. I think Canada have plans to meet the USA later in the year, but other than that women's age group rugby seems to be going backwards at considerable speed.

Meanwhile, England's names for the future are:


15        Georgia Peedle           (Saracens, Hertfordshire, London & South East)
14        Rachel Jones(Lichfield, Staffordshire, Midlands)
13        Hannah Edwards        (Wasps, Middlesex,London & South East)      
12        Louise Dennis           (Worcester, Gloucestershire, South West)
11        Rebecca Hughes (Bristol, Somerset, South West)
10        Lauren Cattell (Chesham, Buckinghamshire, South West, Moulton College)
9          Fiona  Davidson       (Richmond, Surrey, London & South East) Captain  
1          Mica Evans (Saracens, Hertfordshire, London & South East)        
2          Emily Hatherall        (Worcester, Gloucestershire, South West)        
3          Catherine Pugh  (Rochford Hundred, Essex, London & South East)    
4          Ellen Gattlin            (Saracens, Essex, London & South East)        
5          Abbie Scott   (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks,           Northumberland, North)  
6          Fiona Fletcher (Lichfield, Staffordshire, Midlands) Vice-Captain    
7          Megan Oaten(Bristol, Gloucestershire, South West)  
8          Katie Turnbull (Thornbury, Gloucestershire, South West, Hartpury College)

Replacements:      
16        Charlotte Notman          (Penryn, Cornwall, South West)
17        Amy Needham (Paviors, Notts, Lincs & Derbys, Midlands, Moulton College)
18        Courtney Gill      (Plymouth Albion, Devon, South West, Hartpury College)
19        Carys Williams      (Lichfield, Staffordshire, Midlands, Moulton College)
20        Bianca Blackburn (Gloucester, Gloucestershire, South West, Hartpury College)
21        Megan Goddard (Hartpury, Gloucestershire, South West, Hartpury College)
22        Sian McGuinness (Tyldesley, Lancashire, North)