The future of Steve Borthwick’s team is set to take centre stage next month, with an exciting England A fixture scheduled in throughout the Autumn Series window. England A will take on Australia A at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday 17th November, the day after the senior England side battle with the Springboks at the Allianz Stadium.
One individual who is eager to see the former Saxons set-up back out on the pitch, is England Director of Performance Rugby Conor O’Shea. The former Italy and Harlequins head coach has been involved in the England Player Pathway since January 2020, and has all eyes on the upcoming clash at the Stoop to showcase the top stars on the cusp of an international breakthrough.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ruck, O’Shea explained how the international break is the perfect ‘shop window’ to get the eyes of the rugby world on the England A talents. A subsequent A-grade match has also booked in for next February, when Ireland A descend on Bristol’s Ashton Gate in the midst of the 2025 Guinness Six Nations.
“You talk about the eyes, I think firstly, the international windows are the right time to have it. I know there’s the Premiership Cup going on, but the international window is when we will look to have these A matches. There’s a bit of tradition in the sense of having the weekend of international matches.
“In the old days, it would have been the Friday night before an international, but you have to look at logistics, as we (England) play Japan the following Sunday. So, we’ve got South Africa on the Saturday and Australia A on the Sunday.
“Players will be playing in that A game would have been released by Steve (Borthwick) from the senior squad to prove a point, to get in to the following weekend match. So it’s going to be a real showcase and shop window for them. Yes, we will identify some young players as well, that we want to be looking at within that environment.” O’Shea added.
A third England A match is in the works, with the opponent and date as yet unconfirmed. However, O’Shea could confirm that the match will take place between the end of the Premiership Rugby season and in the run up to England’s international Summer tour. O’Shea revealed to Ruck, that Steve Borthwick’s side will be heading out across the Atlantic, as a budding England group go on tour to Argentina and the USA next Summer.
There will be plenty of opportunities coming up for the England fringe players, as the regular starting squad will be whisked away with the British & Irish Lions, as Andy Farrell’s world famous tourists head ‘down under’ to Australia.
“It’ll take place as a prelude to us (England) going on tour. The regular Premiership season will finish, and we’re left with a four or five-week gap in between the last game of the regular season and an (England) match against Argentina, which is just too long.
“We want to make sure that the squad that will go (on tour) will have an opportunity of playing and not becoming, match de-trained. So, whether it’s England A or an England XV, that sort of thing, will play prior to going away. So we have a fixture, we’re just waiting to sign the formal agreement, then we’ll come out with it.”
O’Shea is excited to see what the England squad will look like, when the selected British & Irish Lions are away from Borthwick’s side. The opportunities for young players to step up and make their mark in the land of the Pumas are plentiful, and the England Performance Director hopes to see some of the recent products of the player pathway excel on the Test stage.
“It’s one of the great mid (Rugby World Cup) cycle opportunities that we have, around the Lions. So we hope that a lot (of young players) will go. Some might be rested next Summer, dependent on where they are, and if they want to. But we have a tough tour. There’s two matches in Argentina and one in America.
“America is a tier two, and Argentina, as you can see when they are beating South Africa, and beating Australia and beating New Zealand that first match, they are a serious, serious team. Felipe Contepomi’s team, they’ll look at it, so yes, it would be an (England) squad without the Lions. That has happened in the past. That’s where Tom Curry made his big impact.
“I’m expecting players to put their hands up to Steve (Borthwick). Steve will be massively interested, so I’d expect he’ll be in the Stoop watching the Australian A game with an eye on the Japan selection. And leading into to the (2025 Six Nations) fallow week after we played Scotland at Twickenham, he’ll probably hop in a car like for the Portugal game after Murrayfield last year. He’d be down at Ashton Gate, watching the game against Ireland A as well.”
“It’s big opportunities, it’s brilliant. This games is about the players, and giving them a real platform. I really believe the A team has been a huge miss, not from just England, but from everyone’s international calendar.”
The excitement is palpable for the future of the England squad, with one pillar position in the predominant focal point. There is no denying how England are blessed with an assortment of young and talented tight-head props, as the likes of Gloucester’s Afolabi Fasogbon, Sale’s Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Bath’s Billy Sela make waves with their respective Premiership clubs.
O’Shea cast his view upon the future of the England three jersey, that is currently occupied by Bath’s Will Stuart, or veteran Leicester Tigers man Dan Cole. Whilst Stuart is 28-years-old and certainly has plenty of Test caps ahead of him, Cole has previously expressed how he is taking his Test caps ‘day by day’, with his tenure steadily winding down at 37-years-old.
“Asher’s started a tight-head (for Sale), and I’m excited to see Afo coming off the bench (for Gloucester). They’re young, they’re 20-year-old men playing in a pretty tough position. It’s nice to see Luke Green coming back to play for Northampton after a couple of years away post London Irish. Both himself and Trevor Davidson, there’s two good English tight-heads there at Northampton. And then you look at Joe Hayes, etc.
“That under 20s team that we talked about last year, Asher played loose-head, Afo played tight, Billy Sela played tight, and Jimmy Halliwell as well. So we feel that there was three ‘out and out’ tight heads, and Asher, who can play loose and tight. In Sale’s team there was a tight-head, but it’s no harm. As a young player, you look at Andrew Porter playing for Ireland, and the level he’s at switching from tight to loose, because he was a tight. So there’s plenty of examples.”
O’Shea recalled when he first became aware of how much a serious talent Opoku-Fordjour was, following a post-match discussion with Harlequins and England prop Joe Marler. The England veteran had just spent a match battling against the Sale man at the scrum, and identified the England U20s star as one for the future.
“I had that conversation with Joe Marler a year ago, when he name checked Asher, who played against Quins. You remember that, when he went pitch side, and Joe said, ‘look out for this kid.’ I said to Joe, ‘what do you think, loose or tight-head’, and he said, ‘Conor, it could be either at the moment, it doesn’t matter’.”
“That’s really exciting for English rugby, that you can trip off those four, Jimmy (Halliwell) Billy (Sela) Asher (Opoku-Fordjour) and Afo (Fasogbon). But also, look up a little bit, and that’ll only spur the likes of Will Stuart and Joe Hayes on. It will probably spur Coley (Dan Cole) on, for another World Cup.”
O’Shea has labelled the current crop of emerging England stars as a ‘special’ bunch of players, set to don the Red Rose. The current England U20s are the defending U20 Six Nations and U20 World Championship title holders, in what was an unforgettable season for Mark Mapletoft and Andy Titterrell’s men.
“I’m really excited, not just for the A team. I can’t wait to watch this year’s under 20s play. I won’t put any pressure on them, but there’s a lot of players back for a second pop. There’s a lot of players who are coming into their U20 year that have a huge amount of potential. I think this year’s U20s have as much, if not more, potential than last years. There’s going to be the maturation of guys like Billy (Sela), like (Olamide) Sodeke, Junior Kpoku he’s still under 20.
“Tom Burrow who went out, Henry Pollock, Kane James, Archie McParland. There is a whole roster, Ben Redshaw, you could keep on going. Angus Hall, Jack Bracken, all people who were there this year, all around next year. Lucas Friday, Ben Coen, you just keep on going.”
“That really excites me, for both this year’s U20s, but also English rugby. I feel that we’ve got a real generational team coming up at the moment. I really believe England do have that. You look at the age profiles of Ollie Chessum, George Martin, Chandler Cunningham-South, Greg Fisilau, Ollie Sleightholme, Tommy Freeman and Marcus (Smith).
“You look at that age profile, and you look at these young players coming through. This is not an average group of players that’s coming together. This is a very special group of players coming together, and then we have to manage it very well through this PGP.”
Some of the most recent graduates of the England U20s have already made their mark upon the senior set-up, such as back-row Chandler Cunningham-South and fly half Fin Smith. The Harlequin and Northampton Saints men have been on meteoric upward trajectories, with no let up off the accelerator in their moves up from the age grade system through to the England senior squad.
Cunningham-South played his last game for the England U20s in July 2023, and by February 2024 he made his England senior debut alongside Smith away to Italy, in the opening round of the 2024 Guinness Six Nations. The 21-year-old has since accrued a total of seven England caps, as he starred in the recent tour of Japan, and his former home country of New Zealand, this past Summer.
“It’s great. Life is opportunity.” O’Shea added. “The work that was done behind the scenes with players like Chandler and like Fin Smith as well with him coming through. A system will always produce players, so you could always sit back and go, ‘aren’t we great, the system is producing players.’ But what’s happening in English rugby is at the moment we’re producing players that have the potential to be incredibly special. That’s the difference.”
“If you marry all of this together with that age profile that we have within the current England team, you’re not looking at geriatrics in people like Ben Earl. You are looking at 26-year-olds with their best five or six years ahead of them. I’m so enthusiastic about what can be achieved if we keep on working hard and creating opportunities. That’s what England A is about. It is creating another level of opportunity for us to have a look at players, who can hack it at international level.”
Cunningham-South, Smith and Ben Earl were amongst the England talents that had a steadily structured return to their clubs, as a part of the Professional Game Partnership. The PGP was announced last month, and allows England head coach Steve Borthwick to have final say on the medical and fitness decisions of 25 players with ‘Enhanced England Player Squad’ contracts.
Whilst the focus around the England A squad tends to be on what players get the call, equally as interesting is the decision to see what coaches are appointed to the role. When England A were confirmed to play Portugal last February, Gloucester head coach George Skivington took up the lead, with Northampton Saints coach Sam Vesty also included amongst the staff.
The coaching personnel for the match against Australia A will be chosen by the RFU in consultation with Premiership Rugby, and include coaches from each organisation. Match day selection will be determined by Steve Borthwick and Conor O’Shea.
A specialist training camp for the breakthrough young players took place last Saturday, with O’Shea joining a group of coaches overseeing a programme for the future flying back-line stars. Also, the likes of England scrum coach Tom Harrison, and U20s scrum coach Nathan Catt in led a ‘tight five’ scrummaging clinic, for the up and coming front and second rowers.