When I first came along to Saracens I thought that was awesome but for this to happen as well has made it a dream

When I first came along to Saracens I thought that was awesome, but for this to happen as well has made it a dream season.”Flatman, who turns 20 on Friday, has enjoyed an equally fruitful nine months. I just sat there looking at all the players around me and thought: ‘I can’t believe I’m here’. This time last year, I couldn’t have dreamed of being in the England squad.” You can understand why. Having finally, following protracted negotiations, joined Saracens from Bridgend at the beginning of last season, White was faced with the unenviable task of removing the seemingly untouchable Wallace “I did wonder what I’d got myself into,” he said. “But I kept plugging away.” If White hoped he might eventually get his chance at club level, he never imagined he would receive the call from club England so soon.”I don’t think anyone can ever expect to be called up.

I’m not the type of person who asks himself too many questions anyway, but it was a pleasant surprise. Not quite little boys lost, but definitely a little lost for words “What can I say?” said White, the elder of the two at 26 “It was unbelievable. We drove up to the hotel – Pennyhill Park – with Hilly [Richard Hill] and we just couldn’t believe the place. It was incredible – five-star and more.”Flatman recounts how they felt totally overawed. Like boys arriving at boarding school for the start of a new term, they found themselves roaming the hotel corridors trying to take it all in. While Flatman is keeping Roberto “Pampas Bull” Grau on the bench, White is now first choice ahead of Paul Wallace, the Ireland and Lions tight-head.

Two good enough reasons for getting them down to England’s new Surrey training complex last week.”It was really nerve-racking,” said Flatman, the more outspoken of the two “Jules and I were so nervous. The pair, who happen to be best friends off the pitch – “I don’t know what it is but there’s something about us that trips the other off,” says Flatman – are in the club form of their lives. Unlike Lewis Carroll’s two morose and ageing schoolboys in Through the Looking Glass , David Flatman and Julian White are young and bubbly players. The Saracens props – who face Colomiers in the final Heineken Cup Pool Four match today – are two of the 10 fresh faces included in Clive Woodward’s latest squad.No wonder. According to some, as many as two-thirds of the team needed replacing.

Three months on, and although the witchhunt has abated slightly, one area which is always singled out for urgent attention is the front row Cue Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It was always going to be difficult for the English public, let alone the powers that be, to digest the disappointment of the World Cup. Since that nightmare in Paris back in October, nearly every member of the squad has been analysed and criticised. According to some, as many as two-thirds of the team needed replacing. Three months on, and although the witchhunt has abated slightly, one area which is always singled out for urgent attention is the front row Cue Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Fear not, though. Gordon Ross kicked 21 points and Charlie Keenan ran in two tries as the champions and BT Scotland Premiership leaders Heriot’s FP defeated Melrose 41-26..

It was always going to be difficult for the English public, let alone the powers that be, to digest the disappointment of the World Cup. Since that nightmare in Paris back in October, nearly every member of the squad has been analysed and criticised. Second-placed Rotherham went over six times in their 41-6 victory at Rugby and Worcester, whose halo has slipped of late, stayed third after beating Orrell 41-3.Otley maintained their five-point lead in Jewson One by eclipsing Lydney 44-17 and Cross Keys stayed top of the Welsh First Division by winning 16-6 at Rumney. Sale’s sorry time in Pool Three continued as they went down 46-23 at Perpignan.Leeds head a Yorkshire one-two at the top of Allied Dunbar Premiership Two following their nine-try, 57-0 thrashing of West Hartlepool. Alan Quinlan, Anthony Foley and David Wallace all went over for the visitors.Another No 10 on the international fringes, Arwel Thomas, kicked reliably to enable Swansea to salvage a modicum of pride from their European campaign with a 29-25 success away to Padova, the bottom club in Pool Two.Thomas was on target with three conversions and a penalty as he augmented tries from Dean Thomas, Rhodri Jones, Chris Wells and Kevin Morgan, but the All Whites’ performance was unimpressive against a side without a point to their name.