All the 19-man squads have been confirmed for the finals of the U19 European Championship, to be held at the Makis Stadium, Belgrade tomorrow (Saturday).
England meet France in the decider with both confident of victory. “The captain’s run was the best session of the tournament,” said Lions head coach Allan Coleman, for whom skipper Curtis Teare has been a standout. “From minute one, I’ve been immensely proud of the team. The support we have had from back home has been tremendous and much appreciated. We hope we can repay everyone.”
The French are looking to regain the title they held in 2006, the pre-tournament favourites looking ominously strong having scored over 100 points and conceded only one try to date. France general manager Florian Chautard said: “We played a lot better against Scotland. We looked good running the ball and playing hard and it was a good performance, but we will have lots more to give in the final.”
ENGLAND U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Liam Kenyon (Blackbrook); George Senior (Dewsbury Celtic); Jake Bradley (Hensingham); Rob Brompton, Calum Coleman, Louis Brogan, Joe Digby (Leigh Miners); Ben Bradshaw (Myton); Callum Wood (Orrell St. James); Brandon Wood (Rochdale Mayfield); Ben Selby (Stanningley); Elis Harrison (Skirlaugh); Sam Flavell (Thatto Heath); Cameron Heatherington (Walney Central); Curtis Teare (Wath Brow); James Goulsbra-miller (West Hull); Gary McMahon, Leon Harber (Wigan St. Judes); Ben Holmes (Wigan St. Pats)
FRANCE U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Miki Bauer, Matthias Leveillé (AS Carcassonne), Timothé Bertrand, François Dorce-Hantz, Lucas Emblard, Corentin Rey (SO Avignon), Sébastien Bled, Louis Carré, David De Macedo, Guillaume Gorka, Thomas Lacans, Matthieu Laguerre, Corentin Le Cam, Barthelemy Rougé, Hugo Salabio, Florian Vailhen (Saint Esteve XIII Catalan), Pierre Fourquet, Matthieu Jussaume, Pierre Jean Lima (Toulouse Olympique).
In the third place game, Wales face Scotland the Celtic cousins keen to put their semi final disappointments behind them. “We’ll mix it up against Wales and bring out some things we haven’t tried yet,” claimed Scotland head coach Danny Addy. “We need to get the guys motivated again after such a low against France.”
Opposite number Ant Walker commented: “The performance against England wasn’t up to scratch and I think some of our boys got too wound up in the occasion. I’ve been doing some video on Scotland and it’s up to our boys to turn up the intensity.”
SCOTLAND U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Elliot Campbell (Barrow Island), Euan Caldwell (Bon Accord Bulls), Matthew Fletcher, Luke Punton (Bradford Bulls), Timmy Kennedy, Jamie McCabe, Gregor Mitchell, Alex Williams (Edinburgh Eagles), Callum Kennedy, Fergus Simpson (Edinburgh Eagles/ Newcastle Thunder), Dan May (Halifax Elite Rugby Academy), Clem Harrison (London Skolars), Charlie Emslie, Connor Terrill (Millom ARLFC), Chris Paterson (Newcastle Thunder), Jack McMillan (Queensbury ARLFC), Conall McDonagh (Strathmore Silverbacks), Archie Andrade (Wakefield Trinity), Adam Hay (Wallsend Eagles)
WALES U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Adam Young (Aber Valley Wolves), Cobi Green (Bradford Bulls), Benjamin Hunter, Jake Cannon, James Bartlett Morgan Rowlands (Cardiff Blue Dragons), William Lynch (Leigh Miners Rangers), Cai Ellis, James McGurk (Newcastle Thunder), Jacob Hitchcox (North Wales Crusaders A) Finlay Swift (Pilkington Recs), Matthew Jones, William Mills (Salford Red Devils), Lewis Hall (Warrington Wolves), Aneurin Walker, Ellis Simon, Fraser Stroud, James Smith, Macauley Harris (West Wales Raiders)
Ireland, fresh from their first win at this level in midweek, take on hosts Serbia, looking to taste another victory. “After the Scotland game, there were a number of players who were emotionally spent and I did wonder if they would get that intensity back against Italy, but they proved they could. It was a massive effort and to now play the hosts on national TV here will be fantastic,” said their head coach Wayne Kelly.
For Serbia coach Neil Bijorac,: “Our squad really want to finish these championships on high with two wins from three, so will be giving it their all in this final game. We want to repay all of the supporters who have come to every match and cheered us on.”
IRELAND U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Sam Cullen, Ryan Curran, Fiach Millward, Conor Smyth (Athy Sharks), Josh Battishill, James Cromie, Gareth Gardiner, Andrew Smyth (Belfast Met Scholars), Charlie Donnelly (Dublin City Exiles), Jack O’Sullivan (Eastern Rhinos), Sam O’Sullivan (Galway Tribesmen), Joe Togher (Hindley), Shalun Carey, Ronan Michael, James Mulvany, Kevin Varga (Longhorns RL), Zak Fellows (Midland Hurricanes), Dan Goddard (Salford City Reds), Calum O’Neill (Widnes Vikings
SERBIA U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Jai Smith (Brothers, Queensland), Matthew Dragišić (Canberra Raiders), Veljko Stanković (Car Dušan Silni Paraćin), Dorotej-Dado Arnold, Uroš Golubović, Marko Janković, Ilija Krstić, Marko Šatev (Crvena Zvezda), Matija Mihajlović, Marko Simović (Dorćol), Daniel Marjanović (Kawana Dolphins, Queensland), Stevan Ivanković, Vladimir Milutinović, Mihajlo Stojiljković (Partizan), Zane Bijorac, Zane Marolt (Queanbeyan Blues, Canberra), Vuk Tomić (Radnički), Marko Jakovljević, Mihajlo Tomić (Radnički Beograd)
In the opening ranking game, Italy will be hopeful of their first win against inexperienced Ukraine who have got better as the tournament has progressed. “We play this game with great determination and desire to win. We have already beaten them in the qualifying phase, but I want maximum concentration and determination. We have worked hard and I see great growth in this group,” said Italy head coach Salvatore Pezzano,
For Ukraine coach Ihor Yurkin: “We put on a much better display against Serbia and we were pleased to score 26 points. However, we are aware of the errors and we will need to cut them out against Italy.”
ITALY U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Mattia Saoncella (Comitato Nord Est), Davide Arena, Mattia Cantoni, Stefano Cenci, Stefano Dalmasso, Fabio Morosi, Davide Signorelli, Leonardo Raveggi, Nicholas Ferrero (Comitato Nord Ovest), Leonardo Artale, Mario Di Sano, Alfio Laudani, Salvatore Lipera, Gianluca Privitera, Giovanni Rizzo, Antony Virzi, Antonio Cacopardo, Giovanni Sciacca (Comitato Sud), Nico Rizzelli (Halifax)
UKRAINE U19 19-MAN SQUAD
Anton Bolshakov, Daniil Chervynskyi, Anton Piatnytskyi, Andrii Shelepovskyi, Vitalii Puchkov, Denys Maiorov, Kyrylo Usik, Yevhen Chernykh (Donetsk), Mykyta Ivchenko (Legion XIII, Kharkiv), Liubomyr Beznoshchuk, Vladyslav Osipov (Ivano-Frankivsk), Dmytro Vasylyshyn, Vladyslav Rudov (Khmelnitsky), Daniil Hapon, Volodymyr Brodovskyi, Oleksandr Petrenko, Maksym Shvets, Oleh Kunynets, Bohdan Matsiuk (Sokil Tigers, Lviv).
All matches will again be staged at the Makis Stadium and live-streamed on - http://www.sportuzivo.tv/v2/
Round 3 fixtures – Saturday 11th August
Match 9 – Seventh/Eighth place - Italy vs Ukraine - (Pitch 2, 10am)
Match 10 – Fifth/Sixth place - Ireland vs Serbia - (Pitch 1, 10.30am)
Match 11 – Third/Fourth place – Scotland vs Wales – (Pitch 1, 4pm)
Match 12 - Cup Final - England vs France - (Pitch 1, 6pm)