Charlie Bracken is named at scrum half, starting alongside Connor Slevin who will steer the backline on his debut. Joseph Woodward and Rekeiti Ma'asi White pair up in the midfield, continuing their partnership from this year's U20 Six Nations tournament. In the back three, Joe Jenkins and Tobias Elliott are the wingers and Sam Harris lines up at full back.  

Nathan Jibulu, Archie McArthur, James Halliwell, Nathan Michelow, Tristan Woodman, Nye Thomas, Louie Johnson and Jacob Cusick are the replacements.  

The match against Ireland is the first of England’s three pool matches, with a full playing schedule is available on the World Rugby website. 

Views from camp

Mark Mapletoft: “Firstly, congratulations to all players selected to represent their country in our first game of the World Rugby U20 Championship. For many players this tournament will be the highlight of their rugby journeys so far, providing the opportunity for them to develop in an environment that emulates the challenges that hopefully awaits in the senior international arena in future years. 

“We’ve had a good week of preparation since landing in Cape Town last week and the players are ready for the challenge Ireland presents. They were the dominant team in this year’s U20 Six Nations tournament, and we’re relishing the chance to take them head on to open our campaign.”