Yorkshire lads Tom Burrow and Ben Redshaw to lead England into Under-20s World Cup

So there will be two young men of the White Rose who will lead England into the Under-20s World Cup in Italy over the coming weeks.

Tom Burrow, a 19-year-old second row forward who attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and learned the game at Morley Rugby Club, will share captaincy duties with Ben Redshaw, 20, a versatile back from Bramhope, who played at West Park Leeds and studied at Sedbergh School.

Two Yorkshiremen with a vision of lifting the World Cup in Rovigo on July 19, but admittedly still working out how to get there.

“We’re still working it out to be honest,” laughs Burrow when speaking to The Yorkshire Post from their training camp in Verona this week, ahead of their Pool A opener against Scotland on Sunday.

“But I think it helps that me and Ben have known each other a long time, we’re pretty inter-changeable. I think we’ll both contribute where we see fit, we’ll both give our best input game days and training weeks.

“But how it looks on the pitch I’m not quite sure yet because we haven’t played yet, but I think we’ll be absolutely fine giving input and bouncing off each other.”

Redshaw is confident their styles will dovetail nicely, even if they can both lead by example and give out the rollickings when needed.

“I think we’ll have a good balance of both,” says Redshaw (inset) who missed the Six Nations through injury. “Off the pitch both of us are quite vocal, and in huddles and meetings we’re both pretty vocal.

“As Buzz has touched on, the way we bounce off each other having known each other for so long it just seems to come quite naturally for both of us.

“We both want to lead by example. Him being in the forwards and me being in the backs it works out quite well with the position-specific elements.”

Both have gained Premiership experience this past season, Burrow with Sale Sharks and Redshaw with Newcastle Falcons, who is leaving this summer to join Gloucester.

They played against each other as juniors for West Park and Morley.

“West Park usually got the upper hand,” Burrow acknowledges, ruefully.

Friends then, and on the same page when it comes to their dedication to rugby and to improving, but who will the last word fall to in the huddle? Who is responsible for the tub-thumping, motivational speech?

“Buzz has been working on that,” says Redshaw.

“I had a bit of a nightmare against Georgia,” admits Burrow. “I couldn’t get my words out, so we’ll have to think about how we address that on Sunday, but we’re working on it.”

England play Scotland in Verona on Sunday afternoon before their Pool A adventure continues against South Africa on Friday and Australia the following Wednesday.

They come into the tournament having missed out on a Six Nations grand slam in the Spring when losing to Wales in their final game to allow France to snatch the title.