France, June 18, 2018: The Stade de la Méditerranée was rocking on Sunday as France beat England 33-25 to be crowned World Rugby U20 Championship winners for the first time in the competition’s 11-year history (Hosts France win World Rugby U20).
France, playing in their maiden final, fed off the cacophony of noise created by the 17,700 strong crowd to avenge their loss to England in the Six Nations in March and cap off a remarkable year that has seen them win that title and the World Championship crown.
It was a second final loss in a row for England after they suffered defeat at the hands of New Zealand 12 months ago in Georgia, but both sides played their part in an enthralling conclusion to the 2018 edition of the premier age-grade competition.
There was further cause for celebration for France after their 17-year-old number eight Jordan Joseph was named the Breakthrough Player of the Tournament in association with TUDOR.
All six matches on the final day took place in Béziers with South Africa battling back to beat New Zealand 40-30 to claim the bronze medal, with Australia finishing fifth after a 41-15 victory over Argentina.
Wales finished seventh for the second year in a row after seeing off Italy 34-17, while Georgia recorded their second Six Nations scalp and highest-ever finish of ninth after beating Scotland 39-31.
The day’s opening match brought joy for Ireland and dismay for Japan, who will play in the World Rugby U20 Trophy in 2019 after losing a thrilling 11th place play-off 39-33.
FINAL: ENGLAND 25-33 FRANCE
Exactly 100 days on from their Six Nations loss in Béziers, France turned the tables on England to win their first U20 Championship title on a balmy evening of high emotion before a crowd of 17,700.
Hailed as the golden generation before the tournament started, Les Bleuets rose to the big occasion to deservedly come out on top in a real arm-wrestle of a game.
While number eight Joseph and centre Romain Ntamack have rightly taken many of the plaudits throughout much of the campaign, it was the front-row and the unerring boot of fly-half Louis Carbonel that did most of the damage on a day when France’s finest young players delivered the goods in one of their country’s oldest cities.
Carbonel contributed 23 of his side’s points, converting Adrien Seguret’s late try in addition to seven penalties. Les Bleuets’ other try came in the first half through flanker Cameron Woki.
Jordan Olowofela capped a fine tournament with a try at the end of each half for England, while captain Ben Curry took the game to France throughout but the continual stream of penalties against his side hurt them badly.
The first of the 16 penalties they conceded during the game cost them three points as Carbonel struck the ball sweetly through the posts to hand his side a fifth-minute lead.
French rugby supporters love a big scrum at the best of times and when the pack delivered a big shove, the crowd showed their appreciation as the noise inside the Stade de la Méditerranée became even louder (Hosts France win World Rugby U20).
Les Bleuets’ dominance in this area helped to take England’s penalty count up to five inside the first quarter and Carbonel made it 6-0 with his second shot at goal. Marcus Smith replied in kind a couple of minutes later when France knocked on the restart and Demba Bamba strayed offside.
France, though, were still the dominant side and a brilliant finish in the corner from Cameron Woki after an out-the-back offload from Maxime Marty put them 11-3 up on 26 minutes. Smith had a chance to cut the eight-point deficit but pushed his 33rd minute penalty just wide.
Opposite number Carbonel made no mistake with his next shot at goal after a frenetic period of play ended with Curry being penalised for tackling an opponent without the ball.
Mindful of the threat Olowofela and Gabriel Ibitoye posed, France managed to close England’s wide men down for much of the half with their suffocating defence.
However, a patient, 23-phase build-up from England eventually opened up some space, Tom Hardwick’s floated pass finding Olowofela free on the right for a morale-boosting score on the stroke of half-time.
However, England were unable to build on the momentum and when Ehren Painter gave away a needless offside penalty two minutes into the second period, they found themselves 17-8 down.
Having dealt with England’s aerial assault, France stretched their lead to 15 points from two scrum penalties, the second coming after three England players were pinged for being in front of the kicker at the restart.
Changes to the front-row combination finally gave England some joy at the scrum and with the verdict going in their favour following another collapse, Smith stepped up to kick his second penalty.
No doubt aware of Les Bleuets’ tendency to drop off in the final quarter, England pressed hard to get back in the game but another penalty, this time for bringing down the maul, saw Carbonel put his side three scores clear with just over 10 minutes to go (Hosts France win World Rugby U20).
England’s forwards went through the guts of France’s defence to deliver a close-range try for replacement prop Joseph Heyes but any thoughts of a dramatic comeback win, and a fourth title, were quashed when Seguret got on the end of a Carbonel grubber kick to touch down by the posts.
Olowofela grabbed a consolation for Steve Bates’ side with time almost up but this was France’s night (Hosts France win World Rugby U20).
England coach Steve Bates said: “We were just a bit ill-disciplined at times and kept giving them the chance to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
We knew that they were going to be tough at this ground, with this sort of support, so really proud of the performance from our guys but we just let them creep ahead too much.
They’ll see it as a fantastic experience, a very valuable one for them in the future. Not many of them will come to a stadium like this and be in this sort of atmosphere very often, certainly not before now and maybe not much after.
They’ll reflect on it and say that ‘we gave it out best shot but we were not quite good enough on the day but what a great experience this whole thing has been’.”
France coach Sébastien Piqueronies said: “It’s a squad win, staff and players. We were focused, we worked a lot and it’s a great award for all of the work that we have done (Hosts France win World Rugby U20/Hosts France win World Rugby U20).
We were very united. It’s a moment of history, we wanted to win for ourselves, for this group of players and staff. We are very proud of what we have done.” —- World Rugby
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