Five Leicester Tigers youngsters wore the red rose of England in the U20s Six Nations defeat to Ireland at the StoneX Stadium.
Grand Slam hopefuls Ireland dominated possession and territory on Saturday night to earn a 42-27 win in the fourth round of this year's competition.
Tim Hoyt, Emeka Ilione, Lewis Chessum, Sam Edwards and Jacob Cusick gave a good account of themselves and the club as Tigers were the most represented club team in the England squad.
There can be no other place to start than the powerful number eight who captained the side off the back of a man-of-the-match display against Wales a fortnight ago.
Ilione scored his second try in as many games; dotting down after hooker John Stewart charged over from the back of a driving maul. The ball was dislodged from Stewart’s hands as he attempted to ground but Ilione was on hand to finish, showing good anticipation to play to the whistle rather than celebrate what seemed to be a certain try.
Ilione was effective over his own try line too, holding up potential Irish tries in the 22nd and 48th minutes
Elsewhere, the skipper was a presence in the loose. He carried well and tackled hard for the full 80, and showed some good handling skills to float the ball out back against tough line speed.
The powerful prop scrummaged immaculately on his debut to provide the English backs a platform that was seldom available given Ireland’s superiority at the breakdown.
England’s opening try came off the back of a sturdy scrum and whilst Hoyt was on the field, the only problems came from the loosehead side. He was also able to win a penalty at scrum time in the second half, and before his departure in the 64th minute, England held a 100% success rate at the setpiece.
His role in
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