England Community Lions Under 17s will host France in a two-game series at Victoria Park in Warrington.
The Tricolours arrive in the UK next week and play the first test on Saturday, July 15th at 11am, with the second test taking place four days later on Wednesday, July 19th at 6pm.
The head coach of the Community Lions Under 17s is Gary Hewer. He explained, "It was an 11th-hour addition to our programme where we realised that France were coming over for an intense week and two test matches against an Under 17 squad.
"Our U17-18 program is leading to the U19 program into the European Championships next year."
He continued, "We looked at the selections based on what purely were U17s and actually, we had more U17s age group. So we then had to define two squads in terms of what we wanted to play as U17s and what we wanted to play as U18s.
"We've got some 17s that are quite capable, if not more than capable, of playing at the 18s level and we've got some 17s that we're stretching them.
"They will be exposed to two test matches against this French team coming over very shortly. We held an extra under 17s session at the weekend and we've got another Under 17s and 18s scheduled training session next week.
"Preparation is an unknown really in terms of what the French will bring but we know they'll bring physicality, we know they'll bring flair, and ultimately you know they'll be coming across and they'll be well prepared.
"With ball-in-hand, we feel as though with our skill sets we can cause some problems and we'll take it from there, I'm more about the performance rather than the result."
The squad named by Hewer and his coaching staff is:
- Jacob Rushforth (Siddal)
- Ruben Ruane (Blackbrook)
- Taylor Giroud (Brentwood Eels)
- Adam Robinson (Waterhead Warriors)
- Henry Parkin (Emley Moor)
- Cameron Robinson (Waterhead Warriors)
- Joshua Langley (Blackbrook)
- Joe Lewis (Siddal)
- Joshua Hopkins (Leigh East)
- Charlie Harrison (Dewsbury Moor)
- James Surtees (Shaw Cross Sharks)
- Marcus Geener (Saddleworth Rangers)
- Miller Dalton (Hensingham)
- Alfie Hough (Hindley)
- Tyler Brady (Roose Pioneers)
- Harry Barker (Waterhead Warriors)
- Lewis Topping (Wigan St Judes)
- Fletcher Holgate (Hensingham)
Image credit: Ben Challis
