England kick off their 2024 U20s Six Nations campaign tomorrow evening, as they take on Italy out in Treviso. Captaining the England age group side will be Leicester lock Finn Carnduff, and the 19-year-old follows in the footsteps of his Tigers teammate Lewis Chessum in leading the England U20s through the competition.
Carnduff has begun to scale the rungs at Welford Road, and made his Premiership debut against Harlequins in the 2022/23 season. The lock followed this up with his first appearence of the current campaign this past Friday night, which coincidentally came at the Twickenham Stoop against the West London club.
Carnduff now turns his full attention to captaining his peers in Italy, and has had some words of advice from his former Leicester teammates that have been in his position.
“It’s great. It’s not just Lewis (Chessum) who’s held the position (England U20s captain) at Tigers, we’ve had Emeka Ilione and Jack van Poortvliet, who have also previously had the role. So to have those guys that have pretty much experienced it all, to be able to bounce ideas off them, and later on in the tournament, when stuff has happened and how they’ve, reacted to things and how they’ve handled it. It’ll be so valuable to be able to just go back to them, and get advice from them.”
“I’ve had a few chats with Lewis. Obviously, I was in the group last year, so I spoke to him during tournaments last year, got ideas off him there. About what was going well, I have had the opportunity to bounce a few ideas off those guys.”
It’s not just the young England upstarts that Carnduff has been gaining pointers from, as he discussed how Leicester’s Rugby World Cup winning Springboks have been an immense help, when finding his feet as a leader of men in his early career. Carnduff has certainly been making his minutes count in his Premiership appearances, and discussed the main learning points from sharing the pitch with the likes of Handre Pollard.
“The value you get from playing such a high level like that, playing with players like obviously Handre Pollard, Jasper Weise, those guys (who) have have won a World Cup. The amount of value they give you with questions you can ask and experience they’ve gotten, you just learn from them and they obviously make you a better player.”
“It’s just like ‘what would you do in the certain situations.’ So, particularly from Handre’s point of view, especially now having the captaincy role just asking them like in those pressure situations, like ‘what are you thinking, how are you staying so cool-headed, how are you not letting the situation get the best of you, and making sure that you’re staying in the moment, and not getting too overwhelmed?'”
“So we’ve (England U20s) got Ash (Asher Opoku-Fodjour) we’ve got Ben Redshaw, Nathan Mitchelow, guys that have all played Prem, either this season or last season. And so, like I was saying about being with those guys (Leicester teammates), I’m sure they (England U20s Players) are similar with the guys in their clubs.
“Being able to play and train with those guys, you gain huge amounts of experience and knowledge, that you can bring it into an environment like this and make it as close to a professional environment as we can. It brings huge value having those guys with that experience. It’s great to have those kind of players in the group.”
Despite the Leicester Tigers Academy’s status, as one of the top producers of young English players, Carnduff is the sole representative of the East Midland’s club in tomorrow’s match day squad. Mapletoft believes in Carnduff’s ability to rally up his peers, despite the fact that the lock does not share a club with any of the other 22-men on his team. Carnduff is confident despite the circumstances, and believes that it does not reflect the standard of the young Tigers players.
“I think it just shows you the strengths of all the academies across across England. The boys from Leicester haven’t made the squad just shows the improvement in the academies around the country, and how, they’re getting better and they’re producing players of such high caliber.
“So I think it’s maybe not a reflection on Leicester but a reflection on other clubs and how well they’re doing. And it is exciting that we can pick players from various different clubs, throughout the country. So hopefully, the premiership in a few years will be an exciting things a lot of exciting new players.”
“I think I’m quite lucky that, there’s obviously lads from previous years haven’t been involved at U18s as well. It’s quite a few similar guys that have come through that England pathway. But to be honest with you, it’s about getting the boys towards a common goal, getting everybody buying in to one thing, and I think if you have one thing that everybody’s buying into is easier to bring a group together. Because everybody knows what you’re going for, as one group, and you can kind of drive towards that together.”
Speaking on tomorrow’s opponents, Carnduff expects a tough battle from the U20 Azzurri. Italy’s development system are a far more successful side in their Six Nations competition, than that of the senior squad. This result is by no means a foregone conclusion, as Italy U20 have secured the win over England U20, the last two times the match was held in Italy.
Italy recently recorded a 22-18 win over France, and heated up their preparations ahead of the upcoming competition. Carnduff respects his Italian opponents, but emphasised how his team are fully focussed on their own job and playing their way.
“Italy are always strong. They come with a very good forward pack, (they are a) physical team, they like to get into the arm wrestle with teams. We completely respect Italy but we’re gonna go to Treviso on Friday and play our game. We give them respect, but we’ll look and play the way where you want to play and get the result there.”
England have had a mixed bag of preparations ahead of the 2024 U20 Six Nations, with a win and a loss chalked up in their warm-up matches. Mark Mapletoft’s side ran out a resounding 44-5 hammering of Oxford University, but also were beaten 42-33 by Bath United (Bath Rugby’s 2nd Team). It was this tougher test against the blue, black and whites that Carnduff took a lot from, as his side battled established senior names such as Ruaridh McConnochie.
“The games are so valuable. I think any team can tell you you can’t go into such a competitive tournament that is the Six Nations and not have warm up games. And those games are there to test you out and see where you’re at, and ultimately get things wrong. Because if it all clicks in the first game, it’s almost too good a position so it’s great that those games, gave us a view of where we’re at and what we needed to work on. And, you know, it’s put us in better stead for the game on Friday.”
Despite being so early in his career, Carnduff has already achieved a ‘bucket list’ level goal, in last year’s U20 Six Nations. The lock crossed over to score against Scotland, and lifted the roof off the Twickenham Stoop crowd. He recalled the highlight from last season, yet ever the professional, remained focussed on the task at hand in Treviso.
“Scoring a try for England is probably one of those things that is on the bucket list for quite a few people, and to be able to do it at the Stoop against Scotland in the first game last year was amazing.
“But I think the main focus for us all is getting the win on Friday. Yeah, as I said already, the overall feeling is complete excitement. It’s a lot of guys’ first opportunity to play U20s rugby. So we’re just ready to go rip in on Friday.”