Two red cards and 90 points as rampant Junior Boks book place in final

Khuthadzo Rasivhaga scored a hat-trick as the Junior Springboks stayed on course to retain their World Rugby Junior World Championship title, with 14-man England suffering a second-half implosion to lose 53-37 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

England were forced to play with a man short for 47 minutes after Sale Sharks openside flanker Seb Kelly was shown a straight red card for needlessly head-butting Luan Giliomee on the floor

And with Yaqeen Ahmed pulling the strings, they showed no mercy coming back from 20-12 down at the break to completely turn the game on its head with 28 unanswered points to book a place against France in the final.

England got off to a flying start when Ollie Steeter opened the scoring with a fourth-minute pick-and-go, which Hugh Shields converted, but eight minutes later Ahmed levelled from close-range running over Shields and Nick Lilley for a try he converted.

Shields kicked England ahead with an 18th-minute penalty before, 11 minutes later, finishing from close range after his forwards laid siege to the line and he converted his own try.

But within seconds of Kelly leaving the pitch, Ahmed picked up the ball and put in a crossfield kick that picked up an unmarked Khuthadzo Rasivhaga, only for Shields’ late penalty to extend their lead to eight points.

But it started to fall apart when they were run ragged in the first 14 minutes of the second half, with Rasivhaga grabbing his second in the 43rd minute after Giliomee drew the last defender and Ahmed converted.

Four minutes later, Giliomee lured Shields and Tyler Offiah out of position, and Kebotile Maake went into the corner and soon had a second after Gert Kemp and Rasivhaga butchered the initial chance, with Ahmed converting both.

Rasivhaga completed his hat trick in the 53rd minute before Jonny Weimann stopped the haemorrhaging of points two minutes later, but it was only a temporary let-off with Luke Cannon adding his name to the scorers after an hour.

Ahmed converted before bringing up the half-century with a penalty, and it was South Africa’s turn to lose a player when Giliomee’s careless aerial challenge on George Pearson earned him a 20-minute red card, and he now faces missing the final.

Shields chipped away at the arrears with two penalties and a late second try, taking his tally to 22 as England, who now face New Zealand for third place, salvaged some pride.

Meanwhile, in the ninth-place semi-final, Daniel Green converted tries from James O’Leary, Daniel Ryan and Diarmaid O’Connell and landed a penalty as Ireland saw off Fiji 24-19, who continue to wait for their first win in 14 years.