England U20s on course to become world beaters

By the end of this July, in the space of mere five months, Englands U20 Womens team will have played and should have beaten - every other U20 team in the world.

It is a job that is already half done. Six other nations field womens U20 teams, and England have already beaten three of them this season. At the end of February they beat France 12-5, two weeks later they demolished Scotland 77-0, and in April they saw off Wales 33-19. Now, over the next two weeks, England will face the remaining three U20 nations in the 2011 Nations Cup.

It is a tournament that Englands age-group team have an awesome track record. This will be the third edition of a competition, and England remain unbeaten. Of the seven games that they have played, the closest result was a 14-3 win over Wales in 2008. Every other game has been won by a margin of over 25 points, culminating in a 2009 final that ended in a record-shattering 110-0 win over what was a pretty handy USA team.

The only possible doubt comes in the shape of South Africa, as England have never played them before at this level. In fact South Africans have only previously played two U20 internationals, in a home series which they drew 1-1 with the USA back in 2008. Since then the SARFU have significantly increased the support they give to their womens teams so they only thing we know about them is that they should be even better than they were three years ago. But will that be good enough to beat England? We will find out on 20th July.

Before then England played Canada on 14th July, and USA on 17th, opponents against whom they have scored 258 points in five games, while conceding just three tries, and it goes without saying that Amanda Bennets young charges are overwhelming favourites to lift the Nations Cup for the third time in the final on 23rd July.

All of the games will be webcast live by USA Rugby, in association with YSC (http://www.ustream.tv/usarugby). The first game England vs Canada kicks off at 4pm local time on 14th July (Santa Barbara is eight hours behind BST, nine behind CET).

Other games

14/7/11