Laura Keates to captain England in rugby final

12:54pm Friday 18th July 2008

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HEREFORD’S Laura Keates will lead the England Women’s Under-20 rugby team tomorrow (Saturday) against Canada in the final of the inaugural Nations Cup in Toronto.

The former Greyhound player has been named as captain for the fourth matches in a row.

Keates, now a prop at Worcester, will be hoping to repeat the 31-5 defeat they inflicted on Canada in the opening game of the tournament a week ago.

Since then England have gone on to record victories against Canada A and Wales to book their place in the final.

England coach Giselle Mather said: “We are expecting Canada to come out hard to try to avenge their earlier defeat to us. The standard of rugby at this tournament has been very high and we are looking forward to seeing that continue in the final. We have identified areas to work on during the week and hope that we can put these in place in the final.”

Mather added: “This tournament has been a great learning environment for the players; they have been under pressure against some very physical sides and the quick turnaround of the games and the heat has been demanding.”

Canada head into the final on the back of wins over Wales and Canada A.

England Under 20 squad for the final: 1 Laura Keates, Worcester; 2 Davinia Monteiro, Wasps; 3 Victoria Cornborough, Richmond; 4 Rowena Burnfield, Richmond; 5 Juliet Short, Darlington Mowden Park; 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; 16 Charlotte Male, Ivel Barbarians; 17 Victoria Fleetwood, Lichfield; 18 Hannah Field, Reading; 19 Brigid Reeves, Leeds Leos; 20 Rachel Fraser, Morpeth; 21 April Brown, Saracens; 22 Georgina Crabb, Camberley.