U20

Bates praises ‘much improved’ England U20s after Australia win

Ollie Sleightholme 9/2/2019
England Under-20s head coach Steve Bates hailed his players for a much-improved performance after they defeated Australia 56-33 in the World Rugby U20 Championship.

England Under-20s head coach Steve Bates hailed his players for a much-improved performance after they defeated Australia 56-33 in the World Rugby U20 Championship.

Defeat in their opening game of the tournament to Under-20s Six Nations champions Ireland, followed by a tight victory over Italy, meant the Red Rose would be unable to progress to the semi-finals no matter what the result in Santa Fe.

But nevertheless, England raced into a 42-12 lead at the break after Australia were reduced to 14 men early on when Pat Tafa was shown a red card inside the opening three minutes.

Fraser Dingwall, Ollie Sleightholme, Tom de Glanville, Aaron Hinkley and a Ted Hill brace saw England take advantage, before Manu Vunipola and Tom Willis completed the scoring.

The result saw England, finalists for the last six years, finish Pool B in third but Bates was delighted to see his team show their true colours against Australia.

“I’m really pleased with the performance, it was much improved,” said head coach Bates. “We cleared the breakdown really well, particularly in the first half.

“We carried hard and made ground and that was the catalyst for us to create some quick ball which meant we were on the front foot. We used our dominance up front.

“We looked like a team that was confident on the front foot but there were some really good performances from our lads and they will feel a lot better after that.”

The Red Rose will now renew their rivalry with Ireland in one of the fifth-place play-offs after the Six Nations U20 champions defeated Italy 38-14 in their last Pool B match.

Noel McNamara’s men began the day needing a bonus-point win against the Azzurrini and good fortune elsewhere to reach the semi-finals after losing the Australia.

And they flew out of the traps in the first half with tries from Michael Milne, Cormac Foley, Azur Allison, Rob Russell putting them 31-7 ahead at the half-time interval.

But while Ryan Baird added a fifth try after the restart, they were unable to improve their points difference enough to claim the best runners-up spot.

Ireland captain Liam Turner said: “We just wanted to come into this game, play our game and take one moment at a time. That’s what we did for 80 minutes.”

The result saw Italy finish bottom of the group and captain Davide Ruggeri said: “It was a bad day, a bad game. So, congratulations to the Irish team but now this is not what we want.”

Elsewhere, defending champions France booked their place in the semi-finals despite losing their final Pool A game to hosts Argentina, who triumphed 47-26 in Rosario.

Both sides had a player sent off in the opening 20 minutes as Los Pumitas surged into a 27-0 lead before Quentin Delord darted over for France’s first score in the 28th minute.

But Argentina continued to control the game and extended their lead to 34-7 before Les Bleuets produced a mini-recovery with tries from Jordan Joseph, Donovan Taofifenua and Matthis Lebel.

Despite the result France squeezed into the semi-finals as best runners-up and captain Arthur Vincent said: “It was very hard for us. They played very good rugby.”

Wales survived a second-half fightback from Fiji as they crossed the whitewash six times in a 44-28 triumph to finish third in Pool A behind Argentina and France.

Skipper Dewi Lake said: “We knew that they were a good outfit, especially in the loose. We knew that first half was going to be tough. All credit to the boys for sticking in there.”

But it was heartbreak for Scotland as Carl Hogg’s men suffered a third defeat of the tournament, losing 17-12 Georgia after conceding a try in the final five minutes of the game.

“I think we just took our foot off the gas,” said Scotland captain Connor Boyle. “We talked about playing smart and playing in their half and I thought for the first 10 minutes of the game we did that.

“I thought our lineout was very good until the last 20 minutes, but our scrum just didn’t function, and we let that big Georgian pack get in the game.”