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New Zealand cut their losses to secure seventh at the Under-20s Championship
New Zealand finally put an end to their dour run at the World Rugby Under-20s Championship by defeating Ireland 40-17 in the seventh-place play-off in Rosario.
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Defeat to South Africa without a losing bonus point denied the Kiwis qualification for the semi-finals and their campaign took a further turn for the worse last Monday when their one-point defeat to Wales meant the six-time champions would finish outside the top six for the first time in the 12-year history of the competition.
Their frustrations were unceremoniously taken out on Ireland, the Six Nations champions whose quest for glory at the championships was terminally dented by a pool loss to finalists Australia.
New Zealand needed just five minutes to jump in front in their seventh-place final and they had streaked 26 unanswered points clear after just 21 minutes following tries from Etene Nanai-Seturo (two), Ollie Norris and Leicester Fainga’anuku.
Ireland enjoyed the better of the remainder of the opening half, striking back with a try from Josh Wycherley, and they prospered some more in the second half with New Zealand’s Billy Procter in the sin-bin following a yellow card on the blow of half-time.
What. A. Try! @IrishRugby throwing offloads like Fiji to score this sensational try at the #WorldRugbyU20s pic.twitter.com/SijF4TSD5o
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) June 22, 2019
Dylan Tierney-Martin and Ryan Baird were the scorers to cut the margin to just nine points (26-17). However, that was as close as the Irish got to making a fully successful comeback. A try from Tamaiti Williams on 65 minutes re-ignited New Zealand’s momentum and they closed out their win with another try by Shilo Klein six minutes later.
Reaction: New Zealand's Tupuo Va'ai spoke to us after finishing the #WorldRugbyU20s championship with a win over Ireland pic.twitter.com/8Om6fO42jZ
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) June 22, 2019
In the other early matches on the final day of the tournament in Argentina, Fiji consigned Scotland to relegation with their emphatic 59-34 win, England clinched fifth spot with their 45-26 success against Wales while South Africa clinched third spot, beating the hosts Argentina 41-16 in their positional play-off prior to the final between Australia and defending champions France.
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