England End U20s JWC Campaign

Reigning JWC Champions England proved too much for Ireland U20s, ending the Irishmen’s campaign on a scoreline of 42-15 earlier this morning.

The English hit the ground running with Harry Sloan crossing for an early try and were 13-0 up before Ireland registered a score, Ross Byrne opening the Irish account with a penalty on 6 minutes.

England touched down a further three times in the first 40, leaving Ireland with the greatest of challenges in the second half, 34-3 at the break.

With it all to do, the Irish struck first on resumption of the game. Byrne set up the in-form Garry Ringrose for Ireland's first try.

Their joy was to be short lived however as the English quickly took the wind out of Irish sails by hitting back with their fifth try of the game.

A much improved performance in the second half saw Ireland retain most of the possession, but in truth the damage had been done, with the Ireland never looking that likely to assail England’s comfortable lead.

Ireland to their credit never gave up and their efforts were rewarded when Conor McKeon and Harrison Brewer combined to set up Munster’s Alex Wootten, the winger doing well to hold his depth and nicely step inside the English defence for a well-worked try.

Despite losing today, the Irish and Munster contingent of captain Jack O’Donoghue, Rory Burke, Max Abbott, Darragh Moloney, Diarmaid Dee, Dan Goggin, Ryan Foley and Alex Wootton can take a lot from their Junior World Championship experience, having reached their first ever semi-final of the competition.

Ireland’s still have third place to play for, and will face hosts New Zealand in the play-off on Friday morning at 06:05 Irish Time, with a final of England v South Africa following at 08:35.