YOUNG GUNS - LOUIE JOHNSON

Instinctive Newcastle fly-half Louie Johnson has set his sights on breaking into the Falcons first team after finishing his final tournament with England U20s.

- BEN JAYCOCK

NEWCASTLE FLY-HALF

Johnson, 20, has made 11 appearances across the last two years for England U20s and after being frustrated by an underwhelming set of results in the Six Nations, he believes the group will be in good hands under new head coach Mark Mapletoft.

He said: “My experience in England U20s has been alright. We’ve felt frustrated with results and previous performances in the last couple Six Nations. We feel we’ve got a really talented group of players, who if we can click in the right way can go on to perform and do really good things.

“In the short period we’ve had Tofty (Mark Mapletoft) as new head coach we’ve clicked and we’ve now got a new playing style. We’ve put some good stuff together in a short period of time and have built as a group really well.”