Saints centre Dingwall 'the obvious choice' for England Under-20s captaincy

The Red Rose youngsters begin their bid for glory against Ireland tonight (kick-off 7.30pm BST) before facing Italy on June 8 and Australia on June 12.

Dingwall will skipper England during the tournament in Argentina and starts in the 13 shirt against the Irish, while club-mates Ollie Sleightholme and Alex Coles are also in from the off.

And Bates said: “Fraser is another seasoned campaigner, having also played in this tournament last year and he’s played some senior Premiership rugby as well so has developed well as a player over the past six months.

"He is extremely level headed, has an astute rugby brain and is well respected by the other players so he is an obvious choice for us to be captain.

"Along with the rest of our leadership group we expect them to contribute at key times and in key moments.

“The key element is that we are playing the Ireland side that won the U20 Six Nations so we know it is going to be a big challenge and we have got to be right at the top of our game.

“The players are in really good shape, having now spent a fair amount of time with each other they have gelled extremely well and look to be a tight group and we hope that will translate to a good performance."

All of England U20s' fixtures - that kick-off at 7.30pm BST - are being streamed live on World Rugby's platforms, with the knock-out stages (June 17) and finals day (June 22) being shown live on ITV.

England Under-20s team to face Ireland

15 Tom de Glanville (Bath Rugby)

14 Ollie Sleightholme (Saints)

13 Fraser Dingwall (capt, Saints)

12 Cameron Redpath (Sale Sharks)

11 Tom Seabrook (Gloucester Rugby)

10 Manu Vunipola (Saracens)

9 Ollie Fox (Bath Rugby)

1 Olly Adkins (Gloucester Rugby)

2 Nic Dolly (Sale Sharks)

3 Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)

4 Joel Kpoku (Saracens)

5 Alex Coles (Saints)

6 Ted Hill (Worcester Warriors)

7 Aaron Hinkley (Gloucester Rugby)

8 Tom Willis (Wasps)

Replacements

16 Alfie Barbeary (Wasps)

17 Kai Owen (Worcester Warriors)

18 Alfie Petch (Exeter Chiefs)

19 Will Capon (Bristol Bears)

20 James Kenny (Exeter Chiefs)

21 Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs)

22 Rusiate Tuima (Exeter Chiefs)

23 Josh Basham (Newcastle Falcons)

24 Sam Maunder (Exeter Chiefs)

25 Luke James (Sale Sharks)

26 Connor Doherty (Sale Sharks)

27 Arron Reed (Sale Sharks)

28 Josh Hodge (Newcastle Falcons)