England U20s head coach Mark Mapletoft previews upcoming U20s Six Nations campaign

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Ahead of the Under 20s' Six Nations Championship, England Head Coach Mark Mapletoft spoke to Ruck to discuss his side's prospects, as well as reflecting on his own coaching style. With England being the current holders of the competition but with a largely changed squad from last year, as is the nature of under 20s rugby, it is a great opportunity for much of the team to experience a level of pressure and expectation that reflects senior rugby. 

Speaking about the first test for his side, a trip to Virgin Media Park in Cork to face Ireland, the boss seemed to have a good idea of the type of team that Neil Doak will put out. 

He said:  "I’ve seen their squad announcement and there's some familiar faces from last year. We had a couple of great battles against them. 

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"I can’t imagine they’ll digress much from their game model which has been really successful them over the last three or four years. It’s away from home, so expecting a huge partisan crowd in Cork. Calling any English fans in the area, please get yourself down there. Get yourself a ticket.”

As a former player himself, having got one test cap for England and playing in the Premiership for Gloucester and London Irish amongst others, he offered an insight into how his playing career has influenced his style of coaching. 

"I think it’s how you perceive the way you want to see the game played. You’re definitely going to be influenced by people you’ve been coached, probably more so how not to do it than how to do it. 

"I’ve been very fortunate to work with some brilliant, brilliant coaches over the course of time, both as player and as a coach. I just loved it all. I loved training, I just wanted my hands on the ball, just wanted to move the ball and score tries. 

"So for me that would be the big driving force, but you have to understand that as you develop as a coach, it can’t just all be about that.  And I think that was a really good lesson that I’d learned very early on in my coaching career. For probably the first time in a while it manifested itself last year that we had a great scrum, good defence and it's pretty silly to move away from that." 

Mapletoft won England's tenth Under 20s Six Nations trophy in the 2024 edition, so there is an air of excitement that surrounds the squad this year, something which the former Gloucester man reflected on.

"I think this there is a degree of expectation. I think you’d probably be a bit churlish to not acknowledge that. But what we’ve tried to do, when we first came together, we acknowledged what we’d achieved and said: “Look, this is, this is what we did. This was a template. This is how we did things." 

"Not a huge amount has changed in that regard in terms of behaviours and expectations." 

Something which separates elite head coaches such as Mapletoft from the average rugby fan in the stands is the ability to spot potential, something which may not always be apparent to the naked eye. 

He spoke about how he spots this intangible asset which is so important in under 20s rugby: 

"That’s like Colonel Sanders giving away his chicken recipe, isn’t it? There’s three main things. There’s the ability so the technical, tactical side of things. The physical bit, does the player have the physical characteristics? I mean as much as I’d want to be a second row I’m not sure second rows are five foot seven at a push. 

"And then probably the hardest bit is around that psychosocial or psychological, it’s ultimately how hard is that person willing to work, to keep pushing, to keep striving, to want to be the best. It’s kind of a secret formula, isn’t it? Nobody really knows. They’d like to say they do, but they actually don’t." 

When asked about a player he has recently coached who meets these criteria, Mapletoft gave an answer that nobody will be surprised to hear: 

"Henry Pollock. He’s got physical characteristics that fit the bill. He’s got the technical, tactical stuff that fits the bill. But he’s just such a competitor.  He’d be super competitive at a game of darts, snooker, pool, tiddlywinks." 

Fans may be questioning why an official squad announcement hasn't been made, the reasoning for which was explained: So just for clarity, no, you won’t see an official squad announcement. Just because we’ve got this 50 player EPS squad. This year we’re just going to announce on a game-by-game basis just because we’ve done our EPS in the summer.  We’re going to do the same with the captaincy." 

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