England U/19's starting team
Friday match with Italy
Hugo Ellis of London Wasps will captain England Under-19 in their first match of 2007 - against Italy at Sunbury on Friday afternoon.
Ellis is one of six survivors from last summer's Under-19 World Championship in the starting line-up. The others are Alex Tait, Adam Greendale, Richard Bolt, Ben Thomas and Andy Saull.
Coach Nigel Redman said of Ellis: "Hugo has got the job as much as for the force of his personality as anything else - he's very professional and an outstanding player who will lead by example."
Redman will be able to use seven of the 11 players on the bench against Italy as he prepares the squad for this year's IRB World Championship taking place in Belfast in April. But the former Bath and England lock will be wary of the Italians, who scored some outstanding tries when they were beaten 34-26 by England in Rome last season.
Redman said: "Italy scored more points against us last year than any other team, they are passionate about the scrum and they have the flair and skill levels to cause us problems. We've got to be very careful."
Saracens have players on both sides in the match. Italian scrum half Mickey Wilson was born in the UK but his Italian parents moved back to Italy when he was young. As a result, he has grown up playing for Benetton Treviso and has also appeared for Italy at Under-16, Under-17, Under-18 and now Under-19 levels.
He was spotted by one of the Saracens coaches playing in Italy and, as a result, decided to return to the UK and join the Saracens at the start of the current season. He is a member of the Saracens Academy. He has been a regular for the second team in the Guinness ‘A’ League this season.
Teams:
England Under-19: 15 Alex Tait (vice-captain, Newcastle Falcons), 14 Noah Cato (Saracens), 13 Tom Bedford (Exeter Chiefs), 12 Gareth Griffiths (Bristol), 11 David Smith (Northampton Saints), 10 Adam Greendale (Hymers College & Leeds Tykes), 9 Richard Bolt (Exeter Chiefs), 8 Hugo Ellis (captain, London Wasps), 7 Andy Saull (Saracens), 6 Matthew Cox (Worcester), 5 Ben Thomas (Saracens), 4 Greg Gillanders (Leicester Tigers), 3 Nathan Catt (Bath), 2 Joe Williams (Cinderford), 1 Jack Steadman (Bristol),
Replacements: 16 Scott Freer (Leeds Tykes), 17 Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), 18 Billy Moss (Bath), 19 Scott Hobson (Cornish Pirates), 20 Jon Fisher (Wellington College & London Irish), 21 Garth Dew (Sale Sharks), 22 Johnny Arr (Worcester), 23 Micky Young (Newcastle Falcons), 24 David Howells (London Irish), 25 Greg King (Worcester), 26 Alex Goode (Saracens)
Italy squad: Pietro Aggio (Femi Cz Rovigo), Andrea Bacchetti (Femi Cz Rovigo), Alberto Bergamo (Cammi Calvisano), Riccardo Bocchino (Almaviva Ur Capitolina), Alberto Cazzola (Asr Montebelluna), Giulio Cenedese (Benetton Treviso), Alberto Chiesa (Bozzi Livorno), Andrea De Marchi (Benetton Treviso), Simone Favaro (Benetton Treviso), Francesco Fiorani (Benetton Treviso), Filippo Giusti (Colleferro), Alessandro Leo (London Wasps), Marcello Magri (Stade Français), Giovanni Massaro (Marsec Benevento), Rudolf Mernone (Futura Park Roma), Gabriele Morelli (Cammi Calvisano), Marco Moscarda (Orved San Donà), Daniele Pompa (Overmach Parma), Andrea Pratichetti (Almaviva Ur Capitolina), Roberto Quartaroli (Infinito L’Aquila), Massimiliano Ravalle (Overmach Parma), Edoardo Rotella (Almaviva Ur Capitolina), Lorenzo Sebastiani (Infinito L’Aquila), Nicola Simion (Benetton Treviso), Elia Violi (Cammi Calvisano), Mickey Wilson (Saracens)
Date: Friday 4 January 2007
Kick-off: 14.15
Venue: London Irish RFC, Sunbury
Referee: Eric Gauzins (France)
Touch judges: K Lewis, Roland Potter
Assessor: Peter Crouch, Michael Priestley