England starter’s 6’7″ brother towers over other under-20s
There is a good chance that England might field a starting pack in the future with two brothers in the second-row. One is already starting today against Scotland at Twickenham, 22-year-old Ollie Chessum, and his 19-year-old brother Lewis started for England under-20 on Friday in their win over Scotland under-20.
The Leicester Tigers brothers are both 6’7″, but Lewis might actually be just a bit taller. Or at least he certainly looked it in England’s 41-36 win at the Stoop.
In fact, Lewis Chessum was part of a monstrous England pack, loaded with Gallagher Premiership starters. The back row alone contained the London Irish’s 120kg Chandler Cunningham-South at No8 and Exeter Chief’s Greg Fisilau at flanker. It was just after Cunningham-South’s first half try that the size of the England pack became apparent.
ENGLAND U20 XV
1. Archie McArthur
2. Finn Theobald-Thomas
3. Tim Hoyt
4. Danny Eite
5. Lewis Chessum
6. Finn Carnduff
7. Greg Fisilau
8. Chandler Cunningham-South
9. Charlie Bracken
10. Monty Bradbury
11. Josh Hathaway
12. Joseph Woodward
13. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White
14. Tobias Elliott
15. Sam Harris
Replacements
16. Calum Scott
17. Asher Opoku-Fordjour
18. Afolabi Fasogbon
19. Robert Carmichael
20. Tristan Woodman
21. Nye Thomas
22. Louie Johnson
23. Toby Cousins
SCOTLAND U20 XV
15 Dan King
14 William Robinson
13 Duncan Munn
12 Kerr Yule
11 Amena Caqusau
10 Richie Simpson
9 Ben Afshar
1 Max Surry
2 Corey Tait
3 Callum Norrie
4 Jake Parkinson
5 Harris McLeod
6 Liam McConnell
7 Rudi Brown
8 Jonny Morris
Replacements
16 Jerry Blyth-Lafferty
17 Craig Davidson
18 Moby Ogunlaja
19 Eddie Erskine
20 Ruairaidh Hart
21 Sam Derrick
22 Finlay Burgess
23 Geordie Gwynn
Here is Lewis Chessum’s profile on the England Rugby website: “As a nine-year-old, Lewis Chessum joined his brother at Sleaford RFC and began the journey which took him into the Leicester Tigers’ academy in 2019.
After playing football and especially cricket, he focused on rugby as a second-row forward and came through the ranks at Carre’s Grammar School and his local club. He was part of an England Under-18 development camp during October 2020. Older brother Ollie played Championship rugby with Nottingham and joined Leicester’s Development squad during the second half of the 2019/20 season. He now plays for England U20’s.”
