England convincingly beat Samoa to get their World Rugby U20 Championship defence off to an excellent start. The Red Rose ran in 12 tries as they beat Samoa 74-14 at the Avchala Stadium in Tbilisi.
England led 43-3 at half-time having scored seven tries in an impressive first period.
Ali Crossdale, two from Zach Mercer, Max Malins, Alex Mitchell, Dominic Morris and Gabriel Ibitoye all touched down in the first half.
Further tries from Marcus Street, Crossdale and Ciaran Knight took the score to 60-3 before Samoa got their first try of the game through Losi Filipo.
Morris and Ibitoye crossed in quick succession while Filipo also had a second in the final action of the game. The game also marked U20 debuts for forward Dino Lamb and Crossdale as England look to continue their proud record in the tournament.
England captain Zach Mercer said: “We came up against a very passionate team who were very physical so I’m pleased with how we performed. I really wanted us to play with a smile and enjoy it and I think we did that. We’ll enjoy the win and then focus on our next game against Wales.”
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And England head coach Ian Vass added: “I thought we handled the first half very well and didn’t give Samoa much to go on and controlled set piece as well as field position. Overall, it was a strong performance and generally a good start but we have some things to work on, which is what you want from an opening game.
“We’ll hopefully come out a little bit tidier and more organised in certain areas which will be beneficial to us when we play Wales.”
Meanwhile, Ireland captain Paul Boyle did not hide his frustration as Italy snatched a late 22-21 win in their opening game.
Boyle said: “Our first half performance wasn’t good enough. We came into it a bit more in the second half, got through a few phases, hardened up in ‘D’ (defence) and just fell short in the end. We’ll have to improve for the next day against Scotland,” he said.
“Everything seemed to go wrong in the first half. Our ‘D’ wasn’t good enough, our attack wasn’t good enough, we were under pressure in a few scrums. We did get it together in the second half but just fell short.”
Elsewhere, Scotland were beaten 42-20 by New Zealand and France drew 23-23 with South Africa.
