The former RGS Newcastle pupil packs down on the loose-head side for the 8pm kick-off at Cardiff Arms Park, with England looking to build on their victories over France (38-22) and Scotland (31-12).

Thursday’s game can be seen live on EnglandRugby.com, England Rugby’s Facebook page, the Six Nations Rugby YouTube channel and S4C Clic.

England Under-20s head coach Alan Dickens said: “I’ve been pleased with the squad’s preparation for this match. There were areas we knew we could improve on again from the Scotland game and so we’ve worked on that in training this week.

“A Six Nations campaign is very much a squad effort so we’ve made some changes across the match day 26 for this fixture.

“There’s a lot of competition among the group which is exactly what we want as the players drive each other to be better in every session.

“We will be coming up against a strong Ireland side who have also started with two wins to this year’s competition, so we know how tough a challenge it is going to be.

“Our performance has been building through the tournament and we’ve been improving with each game. I want to see that again when we take to the pitch on Thursday night.”

Teams are permitted to name a squad of 26 players for each fixture in this year’s competition due to Covid-19 regulations. Eight of the 11 replacements named in a squad can be used during the match.

**England U20 starting XV**

15 Charlie Atkinson (Wasps)

14 Tom Litchfield (Northampton Saints)

13 Jack Bates (Bristol Bears)

12 Dan Lancaster (Leeds Tykes)

11 Arthur Relton (Exeter Chiefs)

10 Fin Smith (Worcester Warriors)

9 Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers – Captain)

1 Phil Brantingham (Newcastle Falcons)

2 Sam Riley (Harlequins)

3 Harvey Kindell-Beaton (Saracens)

4 Arthur Clark (Gloucester Rugby)

5 Alex Groves (Bristol Bears)

6 Ewan Richards (Bath Rugby)

7 Jack Clement (Gloucester Rugby)

8 Nahum Merigan (Bath Rugby)

**Replacements**

16 Archie Vanes (Leicester Tigers)

17 Tarek Haffar (London Irish)

18 Luke Green (London Irish)

19 Freddie Thomas (Gloucester Rugby)

20 Ollie Stonham (Saracens)

21 Josh Gray (Gloucester Rugby)

22 Tom Carr-Smith (Bath Rugby)

23 Tommy Mathews (Hartpury University RFC)

24 Phil Cokanasiga (London Irish)

25 Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)

26 Orlando Bailey (Bath Rugby)