Sixways Stadium will host the Junior Red Roses’ warm up match ahead of the U20’s World Cup, which kicks off in France at the end of the month.
The young England side will be looking to go one better, having finished runners up in last year’s World Cup in Georgia against New Zealand. This year the 2016 winners will face Argentina in their opening match and then go on to face Italy and Scotland.
Their last two encounters against the Junior Boks have been in successive semi-finals in the tournament, with England winning both encounters, with the score line being 39-17 in 2016 and 24-22 in 2017.
England also come into this match on the back of finishing runners up in the junior version of the 6 Nations, losing out to winners France on points difference. The last match they played was a victory against Ireland on March 16th.
The visitors come into this fixture having won 41-3 against Scotland last Friday and 41-5 to Wales in their UK Tour. However, their encounter against England tomorrow would be their third game inside of a week, so to come away with another victory could be too big of an ask for coach Chean Roux’s men.
Gloucester Rugby have potential interests in the team, with Tom Seabrook , Alex Seville and Aaron Hinkley having made appearances in this year’s 6 Nations.
On their opponents, England’s head coach Steve Bates has said: “They are opponents that we don’t normally get to play at this level unless it’s at the World Rugby U20 Championship.
“It’ll be a big game for our players and a huge test against South Africa who are taking this tour very seriously as it is also important preparation for them, so it’s going to be a proper Test match.”
Junior Springbock assistant coach Louis Koen has said on England: “They are strong in the set pieces, and what makes them different to the other teams is that they have game-breakers in their backline, so I think they will pose a different challenge.
“The fact that we have a short turn-around from the clash against Wales will make it tougher, but our focus in the next two days will be on our processes and the detail that is important to us.”
The match kicks off tomorrow at 19:30, tickets are still available on the Worcester Warriors official website.
