Former Warlingham youth rugby player Chris Robshaw will lead England in the final match of their summer rugby tour, an “unofficial” Test against the New Zealand Maori in Napier tomorrow.
Robshaw captained the England side in the first match of the tour to Australia and New Zealand, though the back-row forward has not been called up by coach Martin Johnson for either of the full international matches against the Wallabies.
England’s Test XV claimed a rare victory in the Southern Hemisphere on Saturday, when they beat Australia 21-20 in Sydney.
The England XV for the Maori game is sure to be buoyed by that success, and by the enterprising level of performance.
The game is part of the New Zealand Maori’s centenary celebrations, and the opposition is rightly regarded as being of Test match standard. Last week, they beat the full Ireland touring side.
Also in the England side for the Maori game tomorrow (which kicks off at around 8.30am UK time) is another product of Croydon rugby in George Chuter, the Leicester Tigers hooker, and a Trinity School old boy.
Harlequins flanker Robshaw, who won his first full England cap on tour to Argentina last summer, attended Cumnor House prep school in South Croydon before moving to the famous Millfield sports academy in Somerset. In 2008-2009, he was voted his club’s player of the season and at 24, he is clearly one to watch as England prepare for the 2011 World Cup.
