England U20 Men began their World Rugby U20 Championship campaign with a 40-21 win over Argentina at Athlone Stadium. 

England ran in six tries in Cape Town, courtesy of scores from Jack Bracken (3), Ben Redshaw, Henry Pollock and Billy Sela, as well as 10 points from the boot of Sean Kerr, while Argentina’s points came via tries from Genaro Podesta, Juan Penoucos and Efrain Elias, with Facundo Rodriguez and Santino Di Lucca converting.

Next up for Mark Mapletoft’s men is Fiji on 4 July (15:30 BST kick-off) at the Athlone Stadium. 

Argentina opened the scoring 20 minutes in when Podesta crossed following an offload from Rossetto and Di Lucca converted. Penoucos then scored Argentina’s second and Di Lucca added the extras. 

A clever offload out the back from Redshaw found Henry Pollock, who followed up with his own offload to debutant Ollie Allan. Allan then floated a pass out to Bracken who raced to the line to score on his U20 debut after 35 minutes. Kerr converted to close the gap to seven points. 

Minutes later Allan kicked a 50:22 to give England a platform to build on and from the lineout they carried through the phases. They recycled well and with a penalty advantage Josh Bellamy found Redshaw on a good line to score before Kerr converted again and brought the scores level at 14-14 heading into the dressing rooms. 

England started the second half well when Kerr and Allan made good metres into the Argentina 22. England kept their composure with the line beckoning and Billy Sela powered over from close range to give England the lead, but Kerr couldn’t convert. 

Mapletoft’s side won a penalty at the scrum and kicked to the corner, before setting up a maul for Pollock scored England’s fourth. Kerr slotted the conversion from out wide and gave his team a 26-14 lead. 

The Pumitas’ captain Elias hit back with a try from close range and Facundo Rodriguez converted to make the score 26-21, while Junior Kpoku received a yellow card.

With Argentina threatening a try and Penoucos hacked ahead in the England 22, but Craig Wright made up the ground and made a try-saving tackle to preserve the lead.  

With 15 minutes to play debutant Ben Coen intercepted in his own 22 and kicked ahead for Lucas Friday, also making his debut, to regather. Recycling quickly England burst into the Argentina 22 and Kerr found Bracken on the wing with a pinpoint kick before converting the try. 

Bracken then scored his third after regathering his own chip ahead to score in the corner and Kerr converted again to make it 40-21. England kept Argentina out for the remainder of the game to secure an opening day win.