England U20 Men secure bonus-point victory over Wales

10 Feb 2024 | 4 min |

England U20 Men secure bonus-point victory over Wales

England U20 Men earned their second win of the 2024 Six Nations with a 28-7 victory over Wales.

Three first-half tries from Alex Wills, Archie McParland, and Ioan Jones proved pivotal in wet and windy conditions in Bath before Scott Kirk secured victory with a fourth try late on.

England will resume their campaign in two week's time when they travel to Edinburgh to take on Scotland.

Mark Mapletoft’s men started strongly in Bath and opened the scoring after just 11 minutes.

England’s early dominance in the pack paid dividends from a maul in one corner, and some swift hands from Ollie Spencer and Jones saw the ball quickly switched to the other for Wills to cross the whitewash in the corner.

Ben Redshaw then sent Wales back into their own 22 almost straight away after the restart after charging down a kick, and the hosts took full advantage with their second try five minutes later.

The maul was once again involved, this time opening up a gap for McParland to dance through after being teed up by an offload from Craig Wright and the scrum-half shrugged off two tackles to score.

Wright was almost on the scoresheet himself after a powerful run was just held up on the line but England were once again able to quickly switch the play for their third try on the half hour.

Wills was the creator with a kick and chase that proved too much for him to gather but was picked up superbly by full back Jones who crossed to put England 15-0 up.

But Wales responded with their first try of the evening two minutes later as Huw Anderson crossed and Harri Wilde found the conversation to close the gap by seven.

England were then temporarily reduced to 14 a few minutes later as Olamide Sodeke was given a yellow card.

Rory Taylor kept the scoreboard ticking over with a penalty five minutes into the second half and it was the only score until after the hour mark when Josh Bellamy slotted home another penalty to nudge England further ahead.

Victory and a bonus point was then sealed with a fourth try six minutes from time, as Kirk crashed over from close range after relentless pressure on the Welsh try line.

England U20 Men

15. Ioan Jones, 14. Toby Cousins, 13. Ben Redshaw, 12. Ollie Spencer, 11. Alex Wills, 10. Rory Taylor, 9. Archie McParland, 1. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2. Craig Wright, 3. Billy Sela, 4. Olamide Sodeke, 5. Junior Kpoku, 6. Finn Carnduff, 7. Henry Pollock, 8. Nathan Michelow

Replacements: 16. Jacob Oliver, 17. Scott Kirk, 18. James Halliwell, 19. Joe Bailey, 20. Kane James, 21. Ben Douglas, 22. Josh Bellamy, 23. George Makepeace-Cubitt

Wales U20 Men

15. Huw Anderson, 14. Harry Rees-Weldon, 13. Louie Hennessey, 12. Harri Ackermann, 11. Walker Price, 10. Harri Wilde, 9. Ieuan Davies, 1. Freddie Chapman, 2. Harry Thomas, 3. Patrick Nelson, 4. Jonny Green, 5. Osian Thomas, 6. Lucas de la Rua, 7. Harry Beddall, 8. Morgan Morse

Replacements: 16. Ewan Wood, 17. Jordan Morris, 18. Sam Scott, 19. Nick Thomas, 20. Owen Conquer, 21. Rhodri Lewis, 22. Harri Ford, 23. Macs Page