Seven Durham Students get England Call-Up

DURFC features heavily in England Students team against the Italians

durham england rugby seven students

Seven DURFC players will be swapping palatinate for the white of England Students in an historic encounter against Emerging Italy in L'Aquila.

 

The news comes on the back of another impressive campaign for DURFC, which has seen three teams progress to the finals of their respective cup competitions. The highlight will be on March 28th at Twickenham, where the 1st XV will be looking to be crowned British University champions for the second time in two years.

Matt Steele, Jack Pattinson and Fred Stonell will join Mike Ward, Tom Shiel, Josh Beaumont and Andrew McCulla in the first non-domestic game to be held in L'Aquila since it was struck by a terrible earthquake in 2009.

This will bring the total number of DURFC players to be capped by England Students to nine as Tom O'Toole who is doing a Masters at Cambridge will travel to Italy with them. James Hallam, who played against Portugal, is still out injured with a broken ankle.

The match will be broadcast on Italian national television and a capacity 10,000 strong crowd is expected. It is testament to the strength of DURFC that so many players are to be involved in such a high level and prestigious encounter.