England U18 captain Sam Underhill

ENGLAND Under 18 have named their side to take on Wales in the opening game of their summer tour to South Africa at City Park, Cape Town, kick off 3.15pm (BST). The game will be available to view on S4C on Saturday at 9.45pm (Sky channel 134).

Gloucester flanker Sam Underhill captains the side – as he did on England U18’s trip to Poland for the European Championships in April – and Head Coach John Fletcher is looking  forward to getting onto the pitch after two days of good training.

He said: “The lads are in good spirits. A lot of them had their A Level results as well, so it’s been a busy few days for them but they have trained well and are looking forward to playing Wales. It amazes me how they find the balance between rugby and education – they’re a credit to themselves.

“Every year the quality and quantity of players coming through improves. The Regional Academies deserve a lot of recognition for that, but the other nations aren’t standing still – we have three really tough matches out here, starting against Wales tomorrow.”

Updates will be available on Twitter @EnglandRugby.

England Under 18 starting XV to play Wales

15 Taylor Prell (Giggleswick School & Yorkshire Carnegie)
14 Kai Little (Unattached)
13 Max Clark (Bryanston School & Bath Rugby)
12 Harry Mallinder (Rugby School & Northampton Saints)
11 Rotimi Segun (Stowe School & Northampton Saints)
10 Rory Jennings (Bryanston School & Bath Rugby)
9 Will Homer (Sherborne School & Bath Rugby)

1 Lewis Boyce (Prince Henry’s & Yorkshire Carnegie)
2 Ollie Adams (St Pauls Catholic College & London Irish)
3 Seb Adeniran-Olule (Wellington College & Harlequins)
4 Joe Maksymiw (QEW & Leicester Tigers)
5 Joe Batley (Hartpury College & Gloucester Rugby)
6 Charlie Beckett (QEW & Leicester Tigers)
7 Sam Underhill (Sir Thomas Rich’s School & Gloucester Rugby) (c)
8 Henry Cheeseman (Whitgift & Harlequins)

Replacements:

16 James Fish (Trent College & Northampton Saints)
17 Ciaran Parker (St Ambrose & Sale Sharks)
18 Owen Hills (QEW & Leicester Tigers)
19 Kieran Treadwell (John Fisher & Harlequins)
20 Lewis Ludlam (St Joseph’s College & Northampton Saints)
21 Theo Brophy Clews (Abingdon School & London Irish)
22 Joe Marchant (Peter Symonds & Harlequins)
23 Cameron Cowell (St Pauls Catholic College & London Irish)
24 John Williams (St Pauls Catholic College and London Irish)