England Under-18 head coach John Fletcher was delighted by the manner in which his side kicked off their FIRA-AER tournament in Madrid as they recorded 58-8 victory over Georgia.
Despite the sweltering conditions and an early 9.30am start, England soon hit top gear against a physical Georgian team running in eight tries including a hat-trick from No.8 Joel Conlon.
And Fletcher said: “We’re pleased with the result, but more pleased with the performance. We spoke about stepping it up from our last game and I think we did that today. Our forwards did well , the set-piece was good and we just did the basics right which is what you have to do.
“We moved the ball around and created options – lots of people got their hands on the ball and demonstrated what good players they are.”
Fly-half Sam Olver, son of former England hooker John, kicked 18 points while the tries flowed at a steady pace.
Full-back Zach Kibirige scored the pick of the tries with a brilliant 70-yard break as England went into halftime 27-3 up. Wing Nathan Earle, centre Nick Carpenter along with replacements Tom Stephenson and Javiah Pohe also crossed.
England will now face Wales who were also big winners in their 41-8 defeat of Italy.
Although Italy took the lead with an early penalty, Ospreys pair Ashely Evans and Scott Otten soon gave Allan Lewis’ side a commanding advantage.
They would build on that with further tries from Joel Raikes, Jack Dixon, Jack Maynard, Elliot Dee and an outstanding effort from full-back Hallam Amos.
It was a far closer affair between Ireland and Portugal, with the former needing a 60th minute try from Cian Kelleher to secure a 34-24 victory.
They got off to a flier with David Johnston touching down in the corner inside the opening minute with centre Harrison Brewer adding to their advantage soon after.
By the half-hour mark they were 23-3 up thanks to tries from No. 8 Peadar Timmins and Cormac O’Donnell but a try from Francisco Lobo gave Portugal a fighting chance.
That gap was further narrowed when Pedro Avila sliced through the Irish defence to go under the posts and Kelleher’s try proved very important with prop Joao Thomaz getting Portugal’s third try late on.
Ireland will meet France who edged past Scotland 19-7 in the remaining match.
