FORMER Stow-on-the-Wold youth team player Arthur Clark has been named in the England A squad for the upcoming test against Portugal on Sunday.

Clark, 22, played age-grade rugby at Stow - due to his parents owning a farm in Todenham in the Cotswold - before joining Gloucester Academy, where he has been ever since.

The second-row has also represented his country at both U18 and U20 level, where he won the U20 Six Nations in 2021. Clark made his senior debut for Gloucester at the start of the 2022/23 season and has gone on to play 19 times before signing for Harlequins on loan at the start of 2024.

And now he looks set to, potentially, win his first England senior cap in this weekend's A team game against Portugal at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium.

This is the first time that England Men’s A has played since a fixture against South Africa A in 2016.

An exciting provisional 27-man squad has been announced that includes a blend of experience and youth, with five players already capped at senior international level and some younger stars just at the start of their England careers. Jamie Blamire, Nick Isiekwe, Tom Pearson, Harry Randall and Ollie Hassell-Collins make up the quintet who have already represented the senior side.  

21 of the 27 involved players have been brought through the England Rugby pathway and achieved caps at either U18 or U20 level within the men’s system. 

The squad will assemble at Loughborough University next Tuesday (20 February) to begin preparations for the fixture later that week, where they will in addition be joined by some players presently training with the senior squad.