The 19-year-old that is surely on Eddie Jones’ radar
Anyone who watched England under-20’s Six Nations campaign will know how lightning quick London Irish fullback Henry Arundell as he scored a number of long range tries.
Well he brought that good form to the Premiership Rugby Cup yesterday, scoring a try from his own half against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road, courtesy of a back and forth with his winger Michael Dykes.
This opened the scoring, although Leicester came back to win the match 41-26.
England head coach Eddie Jones is always keen to bring through ‘apprentice players’ and while the 19-year-old Arundell may not be in the Australian’s plans with 17 months to go until the Rugby World Cup, he is a player that may feature in a few England squads between now and then. Equally, Jones does love to pick a few wildcards now and then, so anything is possible with a tour of Australia coming up later this year.
For now, Freddie Steward looks to have a firm grasp on the England No15 shirt. Having said that, he was actually shifted to the wing in England’s last match of the Six Nations against France, with George Furbank starting at fullback. So Jones could well still be tweaking some things in his back three.
Elsewhere in the squad, the centre partnership of Phil Cokanasiga and Will Joseph caught the eye as well.
Leicester Tigers
15 Bryce Hegarty, 14 Joe Browning (Cusick 52), 13 Kini Murimurivalu, 12 Juan Pablo Socino (Woodward 75), 11 Hosea Saumaki, 10 Dan Lancaster, 9 Sam Edwards (Law 68); 1 Francois van Wyk, 2 Charlie Clare (Cowan-Dickie 55), 3 Will Hurd, 4 Tomiwa Agbongbon, 5 Lewis Chessum, 6 Emeka Ilione, 7 Olly Robinson, 8 Sean Jansen.
Replacements
16 Tom Cowan-Dickie, 17 Dan Richardson, 18 Tim Hoyt, 19 Finn Carnduff, 20 Simon Koroiyadi, 21 Jonny Law, 22 Joseph Woodward, 23 Jacob Cusick.
London Irish
15 Henry Arundell, 14 Cillian Redmond, 13 Will Joseph, 12 Phil Cokanasiga, 11 Michael Dykes, 10 Noel Reid (J Atkins 70), 9 Hugh O’Sullivan (Englefield 51); 1 Allan Dell (Gigena 63), 2 Mike Willemse (McElroy 70), 3 Ciaran Parker (Green 65), 4 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 Jack Cooke (c), 6 Ben Donnell (B Atkins 67), 7 Lucas Brooke (Munga 41), 8 Josh Smart.
Replacements
16 Tadgh McElroy, 17 Facundo Gigena, 18 Luke Green, 19 Chunya Munga, 20 Ben Atkins, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Jacob Atkins, 23 Alex Harmes.
Take a look at the try:
Take a look at some of his exploits in an England shirt:
Pace, pace and more pace from @henry_arundell 👏👏#SCOvENG | #SixNationsU20 pic.twitter.com/ETrEHJ4GvR
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 4, 2022
