England's U21 hopefuls must now defeat France at Henley this Saturday if they are to keep their chances of reaching the semi finals of the IRB U21 World Cup alive.
After losing their opening fixture against the No. 2 seeds Australia 5-22, England kick started their campaign notching up ten tries against Japan in the second round last night (Tuesday) at Newbury. They now sit fourth in their pool, behind leaders Australia, second placed New Zealand and France.
With only the top two teams in both pools advancing to the semi finals on Wednesday at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford, England need a convincing performance against France to secure victory and a bonus point to put them in contention. At the same time, they will be hoping that the Australians record their third win, knocking the kiwis out of the second spot.
While no one in the England camp is pretending it will be easy, the U21 World Cup is the ideal springboard to full international stardom for today's young players.
England U21 manager Peter Drewett says: "We still have an enormous amount of work to do but the overall development of players from 16 academies through to this level has been going very well and the main England side can only benefit."
"I was encouraged by our performance against Japan and the win has really motivated the entire squad."
If the players need any further encouragement then they only have to take a look at the full England squad presently on tour `down under'.
Most have come through the U21 ranks and six of them Mark Regan, Simon Shaw, Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill, Will Greenwood and Kyran Bracken all played in the same U21 side that beat Australia 22-12 on their own doorstep back in 1993.
Also in the squad were Austin Healey, Tim Stimpson and Mike Catt all currently in contention for England's 2003 World Cup squad while Jon Sleightholme, Mark Mapletoft and Tony Diprose also went on to win full caps.
The tour represented a major breakthrough by an England side at that age group level having been launched just four years earlier in response to a growing U21 scene in the Southern Hemisphere.
The RFU's then Technical Director, Don Rutherford, had recognized the importance of U21 rugby and, in particular, how it had been successfully taken on board by New Zealand.
The 1989 England U21 played its first ever fixture against Romania as a warm-up match prior to England's full international against the national team and it included a hat-trick for current England flanker Neil Back.
John Elliott, now England's Sevens manager, was the man in charge of the U21's 1993 trip to Australia where the team started in style with an 80-8 win over Western Australia before coming unstuck in the next two.
They lost to New South Wales 23-29 and Australian Capital Territories 21-23 before completing their tour unbeaten with wins over Queensland Country 74-10, New South Wales Country 47-18 prior to the test match in Sydney.
Two tries from Kyran Bracken and one from Mike Catt was enough to beat Australia containing four of their full World Cup squad, George Gregan, Owen Finnegan, Daniel Herbert and Peter Jorgensen.
Since '93 the U21 side has given many of today's England internationals a helping hand including Jonny Wilkinson and from last year's side James Forrester, James Simpson-Daniel and centre Tom Voyce.
Wilkinson comments: "My time playing with the U21's was fundamental to the development of my game and I hope that the players in this year's U21 World Cup will gain as much from their experience as I did."
This year's England U21 side will be no exception with many of Saturday's team and the squad as a whole destined for greater glories.
That includes both wings NEC Harlequins Ugo Monye and Gloucester's Marcel Garvey along with Bath centre Spencer Davey and Saracens Adryan Winnan, whose performance at fly half against Japan was impressive, given his preference for playing at full back.
In the pack, the back row trio of Newcastle Falcons and Saracens flankers Ben Woods and Ryan Peacey and Sale Sharks No. 8 Magnus Lund are on top form. Sale Sharks lock Chris Day, who captained the team throughout the Six Nations, is also a reliable asset to the team.
Richard Martin-Redman, the Bristol No.8, has been called up to the squad after Ben Skirving sustained an ankle injury in yesterday's game against Japan. Martin-Redmond, who has been with Britsol for three years, joins the squad at their Oxfordshire hotel today. He has previously played for Wales U19 (FIRA World Cup 2001) and England U21 South (December 2002) and gained his debut for Bristol Shoguns first team against the USA in a friendly in March of this year.
ENGLAND SQUAD:
FORWARDS: Peter Cook (Leicester Tigers), Aston Croall (Saracens), Christian Day (Sharks), John Hart (London Wasps), Rob Hawkins (Bath), Jason Hobson (Exeter Chiefs), Michael Holford (Leicester Tigers), Magnus Lund (Sharks), Geoffrey Parling (Newcastle Falcons), Ryan Peacey (Saracens), Jonathan Pendlebury (Bath), Chris Rowland (Bristol Shoguns), Richard Martin-Redman (Bristol Shoguns), Matt Stevens (Bath), Ben Woods (Newcastle Falcons);
BACKS: James Bailey (Bristol Shoguns), Henry Barratt (NEC Harlequins), Chris Bell (NEC Harlequins), Spencer Davey (Bath), Bradley Davies (Gloucester), Marcel Garvey (Gloucester), Paul Hodgson (Bristol Shoguns), Ugo Monye (NEC Harlequins), Clive Stuart-Smith (Gloucester), Ed Thrower (London Irish), Adryan Winnan (Saracens).