Conor O'Shea: England A initiative is not to 'capture' dual nationality players

Conor O’Shea is hopeful of organising up to four England A fixtures per season, but has stressed that the initiative is not designed to ‘capture’ players that qualify to represent other nations.

England A will face Portugal a week on Sunday at Welford Road for a first fixture for the second string since 2016. Alfie Barbeary and Josh Hodge were two headline names among the 27-man squad that was named on Thursday morning, which contained just five capped players in Jamie Blamire, Nick Isiekwe, Tom Pearson, Harry Randall, Ollie Hassell-Collins.

There will be further movement from Steve Borthwick’s senior set-up. O’Shea, the Rugby Football Union’s executive performance director, explained that “a number of players” would “drop down” next Tuesday.

For instance, the A squad currently features only two centres in Ollie Hartley and Rekeiti Ma’asi-White. These youngsters are likely to be supplemented by another midfielder – at least one of Oscar Beard or Max Ojomoh, perhaps – when Borthwick’s plans for the Calcutta Cup are clarified.

The overarching aim is to familiarise the transition between the club grind and international camps, where combinations must gel quickly. Because beyond age-grade, unless these players are lucky enough to be called up by the Barbarians, this is an extremely rare challenge. O’Shea insisted that the concept of ‘tying’ players did not come into consideration when he and Steve Borthwick, as well as George Skivington, the head coach, were discussing selection.

“The purpose of this is performance and international rugby is a different kettle of fish,” O’Shea said. “You want young kids to maintain a connection. Over the past eight years without England A, you’ve literally had a stopping point. That stopping point has been Under-20. This isn’t about capture.

“If it was, we’d have done it years ago. This is the right time to reintroduce it because the season structure allows it and, with 10 [Premiership] teams, we’re not overloading players. Hopefully, we have some exciting fixtures to come.”

Zach Mercer and Dan Kelly were notable omissions, particularly given the latter will theoretically qualify to represent Ireland next summer, which marks three years since his England debut.

Portugal will be a vastly different side from the one that wowed spectators at the World Cup, with their top players set to be in action for French clubs that weekend. O’Shea remained hopeful of a “really good test” for England A in the East Midlands and explained his eagerness to roll out the programme over coming years.

“It’ll be three, maybe four [games a year],” he said. “We’re very conscious of overloading and we want a programme with an element of consistency. It’ll be done in international windows. If you look at season structure, all unions will have the challenge between end of season and tour.

“If [a club] is knocked out before the play-offs, you’re going to have six or seven weeks. You also have the Under-20 World Championship as well. A match in that period would act as a good bridge as well as the fallow week of a Six Nations.”

England Men’s A squad for Portugal

Forwards
Fin Baxter (Harlequins)
Jamie Blamire (Newcastle Falcons, 7 caps)
Tarek Haffar (Northampton Saints)
Sam Riley (Harlequins)
Seb Blake (Gloucester)
Josh Iosefa Scott (Exeter Chiefs)
James Harper (Sale Sharks)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 11 caps)
Arthur Clark (Gloucester)
Ben Bamber (Sale Sharks)
Rusiate Tuima (Exeter Chiefs)
Tom Pearson (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
Guy Pepper (Newcastle Falcons)
Alfie Barbeary (Bath Rugby)
Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs)
Jack Clement (Gloucester)

Backs
Caolan Englefield (Gloucester)
Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 2 caps)
Charlie Atkinson (Gloucester)
Jamie Shillcock (Leicester Tigers)
Oliver Sleightholme (Northampton Saints)
Oliver Hartley (Saracens)
Rekeiti Ma’asi-White (Sale Sharks)
Cadan Murley (Harlequins)
Ollie Hassell-Collins (Leicester Tigers, 2 caps)
Josh Hodge (Exeter Chiefs)
Sam Harris (Bath Rugby)