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James Halliwell scores for England U20 Men against Fiji

England U20 Men

4 Jul 2024 | 5 min |

England U20 Men defeat Fiji to claim second win of U20 Championship

Angus Hall and Toby Cousins registered two tries each.

England U20 Men beat Fiji 48-11 at Athlone Stadium to go two from two in their World Rugby U20 Championship campaign.

Tries from James Isaacs, James Halliwell, Angus Hall (2), Henry Pollock, Toby Cousins (2) and Kane James, as well as eight points from Ben Coen helped England secure the win, while Fiji’s points came from Isikeli Basiyalo and Benjamin Naivalu.

England face South Africa next for their final game of Pool C on 9 July (18:00 BST kick-off), also at Athlone Stadium.

Fiji’s Ebernezer Tuidraki was sin-binned after one minute, but they scored first through a Basiyalo penalty.

England hit back after kicking to the corner and utilised their maul for Isaacs to score the opening try, before Coen converted.

With Fiji back to 15, Halliwell received the ball just inside the Fijian 22 before powering to the line and Coen added the extras to give England a 14-3 lead.

Six minutes later Halliwell tapped quickly to send Hall away down the wing where he stepped inside and finished well to register a try on his debut.

England scored their bonus-point try after 26 minutes when Cousins burst through a gap on halfway before finding replacement Pollock, who showed great perseverance to score and Coen converted.

Pollock and Cousins linked up again as the flanker passed to Cousins who chipped ahead from 40 metres out and regathered to score England’s fifth.

Basiyalo replied with a penalty but an interception from Hall on halfway saw him race away to score in the corner to give his side a 36-6 half-time lead.

Harvey Cuckson was sent to the sin bin on 52 minutes, but as his card drew to an end James drove over off the back of a five-metre scrum to get a try on his first start. Coen converted and gave England a 43-6 lead with less than 20 minutes left.

After an extended period in the Fijian 22, another five-metre scrum for England saw them work the ball wide and replacement Josh Bellamy found Cousins in the corner to score his second.

As Fiji looked to finish with a score James received a yellow card and Naivalu found a gap in the English defence to make the score 48-11 at the final whistle.