England Under-20s fly-half Henry Slade admitted his side captured their first ever Junior World Championship crown the hard way after a stirring comeback downed Wales in France on Sunday.
England trailed 15-3 at the break but tries from Jack Nowell and Sam Hill, and a further ten points from Slade sealed a 23-15 victory for the RBS 6 Nations champions.
Just as in the RBS 6 Nations, England faced Wales in a winner-takes-all clash and just as was the case earlier this year, Slade and co prevailed.
“It’s such an amazing feeling to win this trophy. It’s the last time we’ll play together as a group and we knew that we had one more performance left in us,” he said.
“We definitely did it the hard way, but we’re just buzzing to actually get the win. Credit to the Welsh, they put up one hell of a fight – but we’ve done it, and I can’t wait for it to sink in!”
Wales went ahead early on through an Ashley Evans try and while Slade got England on the scoreboard, a penalty from his opposite number Sam Davies and a converted try by Evans again gave his side a commanding lead at the interval.
But Nowell began the comeback, touching down before Slade converted and when Hill crashed over – and Slade again added the extras – England led for the first time at 17-15.
Despite Welsh pressure, Slade notched two late penalties to wrap up the historic victory for England, and leave Davies, who was named IRB Junior Player of the Year, crestfallen.
“I’m absolutely gutted, the boys gave it their all but we’ve come off second best,” he said.
“Credit to England, they were overpowering in that second half. It’s gutting to get to the final hurdle and fall short but it’s about getting back for pre-season now.
“We played well in the first half but coming back out, we just couldn’t get into the game. We gave two penalties away which gave them field position and they ended up scoring. That was a huge factor.”
Elsewhere, France wrapped up fifth place with a thrilling 37-34 victory over Argentina, thanks in the main to two tries from flying winger Teddy Thomas while replacement Vincent Mallet kicked 16 points.
Ireland had to settle for eighth place as Australia exacted revenge for their group stage defeat, coming through 28-17 despite the best efforts of Rory Scholes and Rory Scannell, who scored all Ireland’s points between them while Scotland ended up tenth after a 33-24 loss to Samoa.
