England U20 Men draw with Australia in Cape Town
England U20 Men drew 22-22 with Australia U20 to finish the group stage unbeaten in the World Rugby U20 Championship
Mark Mapletoft’s side ran in three tries in Cape Town to give them the best possible chance of advancing as the best second placed team into the semi-finals.
Scores from Charlie Bracken, Cassius Cleaves and Nathan Jibulu as well as seven points from the boot of fly-half Connor Slevin secured the draw, while the Junior Wallabies scored tries themselves through Leafi Talataina, Max Craig and Harry McLaughlin-Phillips.
England will now wait to see if their 10 points is enough to qualify for the semi-finals and who they will face.
England began the match quickly and after a wonderful break from Jibulu, Bracken ran the perfect inside line and had the pace to get away from any Australian defenders and score, with Slevin adding the extras to put England 7-0 up after just four minutes.
Australia came back though and after a penalty from Jack Bowen, Talataina’s score put them into a 10-7 lead.
England then found themselves down to 14 men when Rekeiti Ma’asi-White was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on.
That did not seem to deter them though and they quickly regained the lead through a sensational finish from winger Cleaves, who stepped around Tim Ryan and went over to score in the corner.
Slevin converted that one too to put England back into a 14-10 lead but right on the stroke of half-time, Australia added another try of their own when hooker Craig bundled over at the back of a driving maul.
England came flying out of the blocks again in the second half with a fantastic team score, this time seeing Slevin find Chandler Cunningham-South, who hit the line with speed and offloaded to Jibulu who had the pace and power to finish.
Slevin missed the subsequent conversion but he did add a penalty with 22 minutes left of the second half to leave his side 22-17 ahead.
It appeared it that would be enough to see England through to victory as they continued on the front foot, before a yellow card to Cunningham-South for a high tackle allowed Australia to gain territory.
England defended admirably for 10 minutes but eventually Australia’s pressure told and through McLaughlin-Phillips they were able to level the scores.
This time though Bowen missed the conversion, leaving nothing between the sides with just two minutes on the clock.
The Junior Wallabies came again but England once more held firm and ensured they finished the group unbeaten.
ENGLAND U20 MEN
Starting XV
15 Sam Harris (Bath Rugby)
14 Jacob Cusick (Leicester Tigers)
13 Rekeiti Ma'asi-White (Sale Sharks)
12 Joseph Woodward (Leicester Tigers)
11 Cassius Cleaves (Harlequins)
10 Connor Slevin (Harlequins)
9 Charlie Bracken (Saracens)
1 Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks)
2 Nathan Jibulu (Harlequins)
3 Afolabi Fasogbon (Gloucester Rugby)
4 Finn Carnduff (Leicester Tigers)
5 Lewis Chessum (Captain, Leicester Tigers)
6 Nathan Michelow (Saracens)
7 Greg Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs)
8 Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins)
Replacements
16 Finn Theobald-Thomas (Leicester Tigers)
17 Archie McArthur (Gloucester Rugby)
18 James Halliwell (Bristol Bears)
19 Harry Browne (Harlequins)
20 Tristan Woodman (Sale Sharks)
21 Nye Thomas (Sale Sharks)
22 Joe Jenkins (Bristol Bears)
23 Louie Johnson (Newcastle Falcons)
