England U18s: Flying Saracen Zac Finch on the U18 Six Nations and a whirlwind year

04/17/2025 12:00 PM

England U18 have won their opening two games in the U18 Six Nations Festival, with winger Zac Finch scoring a try in both games. A comfortable 71-5 win over Scotland followed by a 43-19 victory against Spain has started the campaign in perfect fashion for Jonathan Pendlebury's side. 

With a tough game against France up next, electric winger Finch spoke to Ruck about how he has found the festival so far, as well as the comparisons between his game and that of a former Scotland international. 

The winger has had a bit of a meteoric rise in the past year, having only joined Saracens' academy around a year ago.

Before then, he was playing his club rugby at local side Sidcup RFC. Now representing his country, it has been a lot of progression in such a short time for the pacey winger. 

For those who may not be familiar with Finch's playstyle, he explained how he tries to play the game and which one of his Saracens coaches he has been compared to. 

"I’d say, quite elusive, fast paced game. Finding spaces, which are a bit uncomfortable.  I was speaking to my coach today, he said I have a similar play style to Sean Maitland, which is a great comparison, since he’s my coach back at Saracens. Fast pace, bringing the game to life, and just exciting people as they watch." 

Having someone such as Maitland as coach, who only retired last year, has a huge benefit to young players who can learn off someone who has played very recently.

Finch explained the benefits that having Maitland around has brought him personally.

“Ever since he joined Saracens back at the start of this season, the 24/25 season, not just me as a player, but all of our teammates he has inspired us, because he only stopped playing, I think, a year or two years ago, and his wisdom from the game, his skills, has definitely transferred to us as a team, which I’m very grateful for.”

When asked about how he has found the past year as a whole, given that it was only around a year ago he was playing for Sidcup, he said: 

"It's been a huge step up. I think this time last year, I was only joining into Saracens academy now, as a 16/17, year old.  And obviously, in one year’s time coming and playing for your country, it’s been a privilege to play for your country.  But the step up is something to learn from and to build from. But I feel like everyone’s sort of brought together and made the step just a tad bit easier." 

Reflecting on the personal actions that he has taken to bridge the gap between the new steps, Finch said: 

"I reflected on myself. I think as you go on, rather than focusing on every single mistake you do or every single positive thing you do, just play the game or do the training session, and move on from it and just keep focusing on how I can improve as a player." 

It has been a very good start to the campaign so far for England, with a 71-5 win over Scotland followed up by a 43-19 win against Spain. Finch gave what he believes to be the secret behind the success. 

"I think it’s down to our practice in the previous two, three weeks, building up to this tournament. As everyone knows, it’s a privilege to play for your country, and I think all of the boys and all of the coaching staff, with the amount of work we’ve put in in these last two, three weeks, were sort of built up for the first games against Scotland and Spain, and then going into this Friday against France." 

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