England U20 team to play South Africa in World Rugby U20 Championship

England take on the Junior Springboks at the Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo on Friday 4 July (17:00 BST kick-off) after a 56-19 opening-day win over Scotland in Verona. The match will be streamed live and for free on RugbyPass TV in the UK and Ireland.  

They faced South Africa, who beat Australia 73-17 on Sunday, in the pool stage of last year’s competition, emerging 12-17 winners in a hard-fought fixture. 

Ben Redshaw and Tom Burrow are named as co-captains, while Nic Allison, Kepu Tuipulotu, and 2024 tournament winners Vilikesa Sela and Olamide Sodeke make their first starts of the campaign. Alfie Longstaff and Noah Caluori could make their debuts as replacements.   

“South Africa always promises to be very testing yet exciting fixture. We want our boys to commit to the moment throughout and build strongly together,” pathway scrum and defence coach Nathan Catt said. 

“A core principle of our campaign is to make lifelong memories through raising our levels of high performance every week, and this match will be no exception.”