England U20s to face Junior Springboks in May
England U20s are to play their South Africa counterparts at Sixways Stadium on Friday 11 May (KO 7.30pm) ahead of the World Rugby U20 Championship in France.
The match against the Junior Springboks, which will be streamed live on englandrugby.com, takes place at the home of Worcester Warriors and will be crucial preparation for England ahead of the tournament in France (30 May-17 June).
England, who were beaten finalists in last year’s competition in Georgia, also more recently finished runners-up in the 2018 U20 Six Nations Championship.
Playing their fixtures at Stade de la Méditerranée in Béziers, 2016 winners England will face Argentina (30 May, 5.30pm KO GMT), Italy (3 June, 3.30pm KO GMT) and Scotland (7 June, 8pm KO GMT) in Pool B at the World Rugby U20 Championship.
Narbonne and Perpignan will host the semi-finals and ranking play-offs on 12 June, with Béziers hosting all finals day matches on 17 June across two pitches.
England U20s have faced the Junior Springboks in successive semi-finals in the tournament, defeating them 39-17 in 2016 and 24-22 in 2017.
England U20s head coach Steve Bates said: “This fixture is an excellent opportunity for us to prepare for the World Rugby U20 Championship against high-level competition.
“Playing a full international against South Africa is really going to focus everyone’s attention and provide us with valuable playing time before the tournament begins.
“During the Six Nations we tried to play high-intensity, high-tempo rugby and we’ll look to replicate that at Sixways Stadium in May.
“We want the players to express themselves, be creative and imaginative and hopefully by the time May comes around the conditions, as well as the playing surface, will allow us to do that which should be really exciting for the supporters there.”
Worcester Warriors managing director Gus Mackay said: “We are delighted to once again be hosting an international match at Sixways as we have seen in the past that there is certainly an appetite for international rugby in this region.
“We hope people will get behind this exciting encounter and come out to support some of the future stars of world rugby in action at Sixways.”
Junior Springbok head coach Chean Roux said: “This is a great opportunity for us to measure ourselves against a top-class team.
“Solid preparation is key for every side working towards the World Rugby U20 Championship, and with England coming off a good U20 Six Nations campaign and having been finalists in the 2017 U20 Championship in Georgia, this will be a good challenge for us.
“It will also be a nice opportunity for the players to play at the Sixways Stadium, home of the Worcester Warriors.”
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