Keates to lead out England's rugby women

9:13am Friday 11th July 2008

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HEREFORD’S Laura Keates is captaining the England Women’s Under-20 rugby team today (Friday) against Canada in the opening match of the Nations Cup.

The former Greyhound player will lead the England side, who hope to continue the success they have already tasted this season.

The England youngsters have already recorded back-to-back wins over Wales, without conceding a single point.

England, coached by Giselle Mather, will take on Wales again in the Nations Cup as well as Canada A over the next eight days.

Keates, who is now a prop with Worcester, hopes her team will qualifying for the Nations Cup Championship Final on July 19.

Mather said: “This is an exciting and vibrant side for this age group, with bags of pace out-wide and strength and power in the forwards.

“This is potentially one of the strongest sides that could have been selected and this is out of respect for the opposition. We expect it to be a physical encounter.

“Playing Canada in Canada is always an awesome prospect but the players are really looking forward to the encounter and ready to face the challenge.”

England Under 20 squad for today’s match in Toronto: 1 Laura Keates (c) (Worcester), 2 Davinia Monteiro (Wasps), 3 Victoria Cornborough (Richmond), 4 Rowena Burnfield (Richmond), 5 Charlotte Wild (Buxton), 6 Isabelle Noel-Smith (Bath), 7 Marlie Packer (Bath), 8 Nicola Hoole (Bath), 9 Sarah Guest (Worcester), 10 Claire Garner (Doncaster), 11 Samantha Bree (Worcester), 12 Sara Mckenna (Old Albanian Saints), 13 Rose Fong (Darlington Mowden Park), 14 Natasha Hunt (Bath), 15 Emily Scarratt (Lichfield). Replacements: 16 Charlotte Male Ivel (Barbarians), 17 Victoria Fleetwood (Lichfield), 18 Hannah Field (Reading), 19 Juliet Short (Darlington Mowden Park), 20 Rachel Fraser (Morpeth), 21 April Brown (Saracens), 22 Georgina Crabb (Camberley).