April 21, 2007

A heavy final day defeat against France took the gloss off an encouraging season for England’s Under-19s when they were punished for their defensive shortcomings at Shaw’s Bridge.

Despite tries from Alex Tait (Newcastle Falcons), Richard Bolt (Exeter Chiefs) and Joe Simpson (London Wasps) England went down 43-17 to France in the fifth-place play-off in Belfast.

The defeat leaves them with a won five, lost two record this season and ranked sixth in the last IRB World Championship for this age level.

England saw off Italy 18-11 and France 29-5 in their warm-up games before beating Samoa 20-12 and Argentina 17-15 in the first two pool games at this tournament.

Two bonus points from those games would have edged them into the semi-finals but a 34-13 defeat by favourites New Zealand ended England’s chances of challenging for the title.

They responded by scoring five tries against Argentina again in a 31-13 play-off success before the setback against France.

"France’s ability to hit space and off-load killed us and so did our inability to make our one-on-one tackles in defence," said head coach Nigel Redman.

"All season we've been good defensively, even for half of our game against New Zealand when we really forced them to play, but today we missed one-on-one tackles and they capitalised on it. We allowed them to play well and they took advantage of our hospitality.

"In terms of the effort put in, this group has been outstanding. Even today we’ve scored three good tries. Now in the summer they’ve got to work on their core skills and the areas they need to spend more time on like their one-on-one tackling and their passing.

"We played well against France earlier this season, then got through the group games against Samoa and Argentina without playing that well but with a great deal of fight.

"We actually did quite well against New Zealand and then beat Argentina well too. I’ve told them they have come a long way this season and now they’ve got to go on and finish the job."

Captain Hugo Ellis, who finished as the side’s leading try-scorer with seven in seven games, admitted the tournament had ended on a low note but that the experience gained would be invaluable.

"In patches we put some good play together but overall it was a poor performance, particularly in defence with the number of tackles missed," said the London Wasps number eight.

"France had a lot of big ball-carriers in their back-line that we didn't deal with and a good pick-and-go game that we didn't deal with either.

"It's a disappointing end to the tournament. The lads have all worked very hard and you can't take anything away from them for that.

"We had quite a hard draw with three tough pool games and then two more against Argentina and France.

"We've all learned a lot in the last three weeks playing against the best young players in the world and that can only serve us well if we go on to the Saxons, Sevens or senior teams."

Next year sees the first IRB Under-20 World Championship which will be staged in Wales, where England will be able to draw on players who took part in this season’s Under-18 sides.

"Next year as well as these lads we’ll have another crop," said Redman.

"This year the under-18s have come through and we didn’t pick from them for the Under-19s. We’ll be able to have more competition for places next year and that’s quite encouraging for the future."

ends