England will be without one of their rising stars for Friday night’s crunch World Rugby Under 20 Championship clash against the Junior Springboks.
Bath loose forward George Timmins has been handed a five-match suspension for foul play after striking an opposition player with the elbow in their tournament opener against Scotland on Sunday.
The blow left Scotland prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty needing stitches.
READ: Junior Boks ‘fuelled’ by unfinished business
The ban effectively ends Timmins’ participation in the rest of the tournament and he’ll also be unavailable for Bath when their pre-season gets under way with a warmup match against the Glasgow Warriors on 6 September.
Despite playing for most of the second half with 14 men, England U20 still beat their Scotland counterparts 56-19 in the opening match in Pool A. Scotland coach Kenny Murray is hopeful that Blyth-Lafferty will be fit for Scotland’s next match against Australia in Viadana on Friday.
England are the defending champions, but face a resurgent Junior Springbok side on Friday evening who put the young Wallabies to the sword by 73-17 in their opening match on Sunday, running in 11 tries in the process.
Kick-off will be at 6pm.
World Rugby also announced that Randall Baker of New Zealand U20 had been suspended for three matches after being cited for a dangerous clear out against Italy U20 in Calvisano.
Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images
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