12 April 2005
England Under 19s head coach, Tosh Askew, has made four changes to the starting line-up ahead of Wednesday’s crucial IRB World Championship semi-final against hosts South Africa.

Shane Geraghty of London Irish has been moved to full-back with Wasps’ Daniel Cipriani starting at fly-half. Bath’s Nick Abendanon moves to the wing in place of Dominic Shabbo, while Saracens’ Donald Barrell will start in the backrow in place of Leicester’s Marc Howgate, who took a heavy knock during England’s 24-17 defeat to New Zealand on Saturday.

England take on the tournament favourites at the Woodburn Oval in Pietermaritzburg at 2pm (BST). South Africa have won all three of their games, with wins over France (15-9), Ireland (32-7) and Argentina (62-18) while Grand Slam winners England picked up victories over Scotland (32-11) and Japan (9-43) with a losing bonus point against the All Blacks banking their place in the last four. 

“Losing to New Zealand was disappointing but we achieved our goal which was to get at least a bonus point. However, you don’t always get the performance to go with the goal and we have now been given another chance to put in the performance which will allow us to get to the final.

“Going by South Africa’s performances so far in this tournament they deserve to be labelled as favourites. They are quick and very physical, but I don’t think they have been truly tested yet. That will be up to us to do that.

“Our target is still to reach the final and now we are only one step away and we will give it everything we have got to get there on Wednesday.”

In the other semi-final New Zealand take on Australia.

England U19s

15 Shane Geraghty (London Irish)
14 Nick Abendanon (Bath),
13 Anthony Allen (Gloucester)
12 Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
11 David Doherty (Leeds Tykes)
10 Daniel Cipriani (London Wasps)
9   Ryan Lamb (Gloucester)
1   Dylan Hartley (Worcester)
2   Chris Brooker (Bath)
3   Tom Mercey (Saracens) 
4   James Inglis (NEC Harlequins)
5   Alex Rae (Worcester)
6   Andrew Boyde (Leeds Tykes)
7   Donald Barrell (Saracens)
8   Jordan Crane (Leeds Tykes) Captain

Replacements:
Rob Webber (Leeds Tykes),
Alex Rogers (NEC Harlequins),
Kevin Davis (Leicester Tigers),
Mike Myerscough (Bath),
Marc Howgate (Leicester Tigers),
Adam Powell (Saracens),
Derry Coughlan (London Irish),
Dominic Shabbo (London Irish),
Dominic Waldouck (London Wasps),
Alex Wright (Leicester Tigers),
David Tait (Sale Sharks).