England U20s: Gareth Harris and Seb Kelly look ahead to Italy challenge

Andy Titterrell’s side travel for the Round 4 fixture after a 31–21 loss to Ireland at the Recreation Ground last time out. The result halted England’s early momentum in the championship, leaving them third in the table with two wins and one defeat from their opening three matches.

Six points behind leaders France, England’s title hopes are slim, but the final two rounds still provide an important opportunity for the squad’s continued development. Titterrell will be keen to see his side build on the encouraging performances shown earlier in the campaign, including a hard fought opening-round victory over Wales in difficult conditions.

Among those starting against Italy is Sale Sharks flanker Seb Kelly, one of the more experienced players within the current squad despite still being only 20. Kelly has progressed through England’s pathway sides, captaining the Under-19s during a high scoring win over Japan before stepping into the Under-20 setup last year.

Reflecting on the week following the Ireland defeat, Kelly said the group used the fallow week to reset before focusing fully on the challenge in Treviso.

“As a player group, quite a disappointing result against Ireland but coming back in after a week off, it was quite refreshing to have a week out,” he said. “It can get a bit strenuous having three weeks on the bounce and then going again when we come back in.

“But we're quite a tight knit group, that's what the coaches have been driving, making sure we get together, win or lose and make sure we're picking up the pieces and getting good reviews in at the start of the week and building into sessions so the time we are getting to later in the week, we're getting into the game against Italy, hopefully tearing in and hopefully getting a good result out there. But it comes down to how tight we are as a group.”

Kelly also had to endure some friendly family banter after the loss. His older brother Dan Kelly, now tied to Ireland internationally after one cap for England, did not miss the chance to remind him of the result.

“There's a few academy boys that are at Munster, where he is now, and I got chatting to a couple of them after and was having a laugh with them and got the phone call later on from my brother,” Kelly said. “It was a good laugh over the phone, he was taking the mick out of me, it was funny.”

Assistant coach Gareth Harris, who has joined the England staff from Sale Sharks for the championship, said the break after Round 3 allowed players to reflect before turning their attention to the final matches.

“Some of the players went back to club, couple of lads played Prem Cup at the weekend,” Harris said. “There's a little bit of time to reflect on the result but more importantly, the performance and maybe some things that didn't quite go our way in the second half.

“But we've been really clear on what we need to get after in going into these last two games and how we grow over these next couple of weeks and into the World Cup in the summer.”

Drawing on his club experience, Harris also outlined how the England pathway works alongside Prem clubs, reflecting on the relationship from his perspective at Sale.

"In terms of the alignment of the clubs and the 20s setup as a whole, we have the whole management staff come in at various points throughout the season up at Sale where we're sitting down with players and staff and making sure there's alignment in terms of what we're getting after from an individual development point of view so there's lots of touchpoints with the players and the staff throughout the whole season and then through these competition blocks is where you bring it all together."