Agony for Ireland as a gutsy England clinch Six Nations U20s title
Mark Mapletoft’s six-try England have denied Richie Murphy’s Ireland a hat-trick of successive Six Nations U20s title following another incredible night of international age-grade rugby.
The Irish closed out a hard-fought five-try, 36-0 win over Scotland in Cork, their last three tries coming in the closing 10 minutes, and it left England needing to beat world champions France in Pau to take the glory.
Behind 12-21 at the break in a match that started an hour later than the Irish, the English pulled level at 31-all on 59 minutes before moving 38-31 ahead four minutes later with a penalty try.
Another converted score with the French a player down to a yellow card closed out the inspired 45-31 success, clinching England a first Six Nations title since the behind-closed-doors championship of 2021.
Having shared a 32-all draw last week in Bath, the English went into the final round one point ahead of Ireland on the table, with a superior +59 to +42 points difference.
Ireland kicked off 60 minutes before England started and the winless Scots initially frustrated the Irish, holding them scoreless until the 21st minute until winger Hugo McLaughlin got in at the corner for a try expertly converted by Jack Murphy.
That breakthrough wasn’t the prompt for the Irish to go on and dominate, however. Instead, their scrum leaked a succession of momentum-draining penalties and they reached the interval without adding to their 7-0 lead.
By the time they returned to begin their second half, England were kicking off in France with a bang as Ben Redshaw royally took advantage of a French fumble to run from deep inside his own half and score an unconverted try with less than a minute played.
This lead pushed England back on top of the as-it-stood table, but the night’s edge-of-seat drama was only getting going. Irish replacement tighthead Patreece Bell’s scrum penalty win allowed Murphy to kick for a 10-0 lead on 50 minutes, and this was quickly followed in France by the English sloppily relinquishing their lead from scrum ball.
Archie McParland whipped out an aimless pass from the halfway set-piece and the loose ball was snapped up Theo Attissogbe. A magnificent offload in the tackle followed from Leon Darricarrere and away streaked the full-back Mathis Ferte to score the 13th-minute try converted by Hugo Reus for a 7-5 advantage.
The next score arrived over in Cork, Ireland skipper and eventual player of the match Evan O’Connell getting in for an unconverted 60th minute try off pick-and-go to push his team 15-0 clear, and this was quickly followed by massive developments back in Pau where England conceded two converted tries in two minutes to fall 5-21 behind on 27 minutes.
A show of power from the pack, which included Posolo Tuilagi on the charge, sucked in the visitors near the line on the right and when the ball was flashed inwards, Kalvin Gourgues had too much momentum for Ben Waghorn.
Reus converted from in front of the posts and he was doing the same thing quickly after following an audacious piece of play that he instigated with a crosskick in his own 22 that found Attissogbe on the far wing.
Despite having Redshaw closing down fast, he nonchalantly executed a grubber kick, ran around his marker, collected and passed clear to the supporting Ferte, who then gave skipper Leo Carbonneau an easy run-in from distance.
The bonus point try would have been bagged on 33 minutes had Maxence Biasotto backed himself to score rather than flop a pass to Reus and this let-off critically allowed the wounded England to hit back three minutes later with hooker James Isaacs scoring from a maul and Sean Kerr converting to cut the margin to 12-21.
Meanwhile, Ireland suddenly found a new gear to impressively close out their win. Sub hooker Danny Sheahan was mauled over on 71 minutes with the Scots down a player to a yellow card. Sean Edogbo next added the bonus point try six minutes later, and the clock had ticked into the 83rd minute when Sheahan added his second and his team’s fifth try.
Murphy converted all three tries to make the final score 36-0, leaving his team four points clear at the top of the as-it-stood table and waiting to see what would unfold in the second half in Pau.
Bonus point secured ?#IRESCO | #U206N pic.twitter.com/rbBQu6HaJy
— Six Nations Under-20s (@SixNationsU20) March 15, 2024
England now knew for certain that they needed a bonus-point win to be crowned champions and their third try arrived just three minutes after the restart, Isaacs striking from another lineout maul. Kerr’s conversion left the score 19-21.
What followed was an electric passage at both ends of the field. France, attacking from their own 10-metre line on 46 minutes, finished an excellent team move with Mathis Castro arcing around Ioan Jones for the four-try bonus point that was added to by Reus.
Their delight, though, was quickly neutralised as Jones perfectly timed an intercept inside his own half to embark on the fantastic run that got him to the line. The try was unconverted but it meant that England now had the four-try bonus point and their only focus now was overturning the 24-28 margin to win the game and claim the title.
ANOTHER outrageous try from England!
This game…Incredible! ? pic.twitter.com/OrsfysaId2— Six Nations Under-20s (@SixNationsU20) March 15, 2024
France struck next, Reus putting over a 57th-minute penalty kick following a scrum infringement, but England were quickly level with a peach of a converted 59th-minute try.
McParland was smart with his delayed pass to put skipper Finn Carnduff in through a gap and the supporting Henry Pollock galloped over to leave George Makepeace-Cubitt to make it at 31-all with his kick.
Come the 63rd minute the visitors were 38-31 ahead courtesy of a penalty try after a lineout maul was collapsed at the line by the yellow-carded Thomas Duchene.
The moment we became @SixNationsU20
champions ? pic.twitter.com/20HIBLZJ7n— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) March 15, 2024
This numerical advantage was then exploited by some more powerful driving six minutes later, sub prop Jimmy Halliwell the beneficiary when play switched inside.
Kerr, who was back on the kicking duties, converted to stretch the gap to 45-31, meaning France needed two converted tries to force the draw that would wrest the title from England and hand it back to Ireland.
The hosts couldn’t make any headway, not even after sub loosehead Scott Kirk was yellow-carded, and it left Mapletoft’s team the champions after yet another epic night’s age-grade entertainment.
Roll on the Junior World Championship in South Africa in June!
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments