England Under-20s head coach Steve Bates had his forwards to thank after his side got their Under-20s Six Nations campaign back on track with a win over France.
Saturday’s 31-19 bonus point victory at Sandy Park was largely owed the performance of the pack who turned over a scrum for Ollie Sleightholme to get his first try at Under-20 level.
Such was the dominance of the pack, they forced two further penalty tries to help England take command of the scoreboard and return to winning ways following their opening round loss to Ireland.
Bates observed a skittish display but was delighted with the shift his forwards put in to earn the vital win.
“It was a performance that reflected the circumstances we were in,” Bates said.
“There was a bit of nervousness but the pack played extremely well and we know we can defend better and our discipline must be better. Overall though it was an important victory.
“The performance of the pack gave us a huge psychological advantage throughout, every scrum we had them under massive pressure and that gave us huge momentum and allowed us to also score a couple of tries.
“We were desperately keen to win, we’ve probably got more to our game than you saw today but I think the win was the important thing and it gets us back on track.
“We are right back in the tournament though and we will go on from here.”
