Leeds youngsters earn praise from England

Seventeen-year-olds Lewis Boyce, Jack Walker and Paul Hill, 18, all joined England’s Six Nations front-row at a training session at St George’s Park, Burton, on Wednesday.

The three youngsters trained with the starting XV from the France and Scotland games against Loughborough University, focussing on attack and defence for next week’s fixture against Ireland at Twickenham.

Hill and Walker have both represented England in their Under-20s Six Nations, and the three of them earned praise from forwards coach Graham Rowntree.

“All three players have been developing well and this was a good opportunity for them to spend some time around the senior players and learn from that experience,” he said.

“All three are a credit to the work that is going on up at Leeds in the academy, and I am sure it will benefit Jack and Paul especially as they continue their involvement with the England Under-20s squad in their Six Nations.”

Leeds’s head coach James Lowes has made five changes for the first-team’s appointment with Moseley tomorrow in the Greene King IPA Championship.

All five changes come in the pack with a new-look front-row in Ben Harris, Phil Nilsen and Damien Tussac. The latter starts his first game since suffering a compound fracture to his foot in the clash with London Welsh back in November. Mike Myerscough replaces Nathan Hannay while David Sisi starts his first game.

Doncaster look to stretch their lead at the topo of National One when they visit Tynedale, a side they thrashed 55-3 at Castle Park earlier in the season.

Director of rugby Clive Griffiths said: “Tynedale are unrecognisable from where they were.

“We know it’s going to be a dogfight and that we must keep up our winning trend.”