England Rugby Squad Ages (Six Nations 2022)

The average age of the England rugby squad in 2022 is 25 ½ years old.

The two oldest players, Courtney Laws and Ben Youngs, were 32.

The youngest players were two backs, Orlando Bailey and Tommy Freeman.

In general, the England forwards were slightly older than the backs by about half a year.

The England squad age has lowered by about half a year from the Autumn Internationals in 2021.

This article dives into the details. We also compare the squad averages to ages across the England Premiership and against other top countries. You may be surprised!

Age Of Every Player In the England Rugby Squad

Squads are usually broken down by forwards and backs, so we’ll do the same.

We’ll start with the forwards. The squad is ordered from the young guns to the senior citizens!

Ages Of England Forwards

England PlayerDate Of BirthAge (2022)Position
Alfie Barbeary05 October 200021Hooker or backrow
Ollie Chessum06 September 200021Lock
Bevan Rodd26 August 200021Prop
Joe Heyes13 April 199922Prop
Tom Curry15 June 199823Flanker
Jamie Blamire22 December 199724Hooker
Alex Dombrandt29 April 199724No 8 or lock
Will Stuart12 July 199625Prop
Lewis Ludlam08 December 199526Back-row
Charlie Ewels29 June 199526Lock
Ellis Genge16 February 199526Prop
Sam Simmonds10 November 199427No 8
Maro Itoje28 October 199427Lock or backrow
Jonny Hill08 June 199427Lock
Luke Cowan-Dickie20 June 199328Hooker
Kyle Sinckler30 March 199328Prop
Jamie George20 October 199031Hooker
Joe Marler07 July 199031Prop
Courtney Lawes23 February 198932Lock

The average age of the forwards is 25 years and 9 months.

Ages Of England Backs

England PlayerDate Of BirthAge (2022)Position
Orlando Bailey29 September 200120Flyhalf
Raffi Quirke18 August 200120Scrumhalf
Tommy Freeman05 March 200120Fullback
Freddie Steward05 December 200021Fullback or wing
Marcus Smith14 February 199922Flyhalf
Ollie Hassell-Collins17 January 199923Wing
Harry Randall18 December 199724Scrumhalf
Luke Northmore16 March 199724Centre
Max Malins07 January 199725Fullback or flyhalf
George Furbank17 October 199625Fullback
Joe Marchant16 July 199625Centre
Jack Nowell11 April 199328Wing
Henry Slade19 March 199328Centre
Owen Farrell24 September 199130Flyhalf or centre
Jonny May01 April 199031Wing
Mark Atkinson08 March 199031Centre
Ben Youngs05 September 198932Scrumhalf

The average age of the backs is 25 years and 3 months. This is six months lower than the forwards.

If you want more squad details including the clubs of the players, check out our article that covers all the Six Nations squads.

How Does The England Squad Compare To The Premiership?

You can see a detailed breakdown by club in this article on the average age of Premiership rugby players. We’ll use the numbers in that article to do some interesting comparisons here.

In general, the average age across the Premiership is 27 years old. This means that Eddie Jones has picked a squad that is younger than the rest of the Premiership.

The squad is also a little younger than the 2021 squad for the Autumn Internationals.

We mentioned that two players in the squad are 32 years old. How much longer can these old stagers keep going?

Well, the average age of retirement in the Premiership is four years older than that so there’s a bit of life in them yet!

And what about the young guns? It’s rare enough for twenty year olds to be called into squads, so the three young backs can be very proud of themselves.

They are actually a full year younger than the average age that players get their first contracts across the Premiership.

How Does The England Squad Compare To Other Countries?

I compiled international player ages using test squads from 2021.

As you can see, England is tied with France as having the youngest average ages.

Both national coaches have said they are building for the next World Cup. That is probably why they are blooding young players at a higher rate than usual.

CountryAverage
England25
Ireland28
Scotland26
Wales27
France25
Australia26
New Zealand27
South Africa29