Ewels leads England A

BATH Rugby lock Charlie Ewels will captain England A against Portugal in Leicester tomorrow for the team’s first fixture in eight years.

Ewels is joined by four other senior England internationals in the starting line-up, with Bristol Bears scrum-half Harry Randall also featuring, alongside hooker Jamie Blamire, prop Joe Heyes and flanker Tom Pearson.

Senior England hopefuls Oscar Beard and Max Ojomoh form the centre partnership, meanwhile, against a Portugal team that beat Fiji and drew with Georgia at last year’s Rugby World Cup.

It will be England A’s first match since 2016, when they were known as England Saxons and won two games against South Africa A.

England A head coach George Skivington, the Gloucester rugby director, said: “It has been great to get together with the group this week at Loughborough, and I have been really impressed by the high standards they’ve shown.

“I believe we have assembled a squad that possesses some of the most exciting developing talent the Premiership has to offer.” England A: J Hodge (Exeter); C Murley, O Beard (both Harlequins), M Ojomoh, W Muir (both Bath); C Atkinson (Gloucester), H Randall (Bristol); F Baxter (Harlequins), J Blamire (Newcastle), J Heyes (Leicester), R Tuima (Exeter), C Ewels (Bath, capt), T Pearson (Northampton), G Pepper (Newcastle), A Barbeary (Bath). Reps: S Riley (Harlequins),

T Haffar (Northampton), J Iosefa-Scott, G Fisilau

(both Exeter), B Bamber (Sale), C Englefield (Gloucester), J Shillcock (Leicester), O Hartley (Saracens).