England beaten by Australia in fifth-place play-off of 2025 U20 World Championship
England U20 Men finished sixth at the 2025 World Rugby U20 Championship after falling to a 68-40 defeat against Australia.
Having played out a thrilling 36-33 win over Australia in the pool stage, England were looking to end their tournament on a high, but tries from Kepu Tuipulotu, Campbell Ridl, Sam Williams, Vilikesa Sela, Will Knight and Reggie Hammick, as well as 10 points from Ben Coen proved too little.
Australia threatened from the off after winning successive penalties in the early exchanges and the danger showed immediately as Edwin Langi crashed over to open the scoring, with Joey Fowler converting four minutes in.
A few minutes later the Junior Wallabies doubled their score as Aden Ekanayake finished off Dre Pakeho’s break, and Fowler added the extras for a 14-0 lead. Australia then scored their third try after 13 minutes, as Fowler put Sidney Harvey through a gap and the fly half converted.
England responded shortly after through Tuipulotu, who scored a hat-trick against Australia in their pool meeting. The Bath hooker capitalised on a powerful rolling maul to crash over and Coen slotted the conversion to narrow the margin to 21-7.
From the restart, Mark Mapletoft’s men were penalised for a clear-out past the ruck, but they disrupted the Wallaby lineout to regain possession, with Archie McParland’s kick ahead causing confusion in the opposition ranks.
An excellent counter ruck then saw England rewarded with a penalty that they kicked to the corner. Captain Tom Burrow won the lineout and the backs then spread the ball wide for Ridl to go over in the corner after stepping inside the covering defender. Coen, the tournament's second highest points scorer, then converted from wide.
Australia then hit back thanks to a break by Fowler, who found Ekanayake on his shoulder before the flanker passed inside for Harvey to score his second. Fowler’s conversion saw the men in green and gold restore their 14-point buffer.
On the half-hour mark, Fowler then extended the lead further after chipping ahead to regather his own kick and converted to make it 35-14.
Just a few moments later, however, Australia were penalised for being offside at a kick and England took advantage of the decision to kick for the corner. Burrow again took the ball at the lineout and played off the top, with McParland hitting Nic Allison on a hard line. Allison was tackled short, but Australia’s Malakye Enasio was then sin binned for not releasing.
With a man advantage, Mapletoft’s side tapped from five metres out and after an initial carry spread the ball for Leicester Tigers' Sam Williams to score his first try for England U20. Coen continued his form from the tee to bring England up to 35-21 at half-time.
Australia looked to start the second half quickly, but were met with a resolute England defence as Ralph McEachran made a try-saving tackle on Harvey. However, they did eventually cross through Cooper Watters nine minutes into the half.
It didn’t take long for England to respond and, after winning a penalty, they showed their power game by carrying in-field for Sela to bulldoze over for the team’s fourth converted try of the game.
Five minutes later Enasio’s converted try to give the Junior Wallabies a 47-28 lead, before replacement James Martens went over for to widen the margin.
A sensational score by Knight saw England cut the gap again, as Jack Bracken was put into space on half-way before the ball was worked to Knight via debutant Hammick.
As the clock ticked into the final 10 minutes, Ekanayake scored his second in the corner, but an impressive take from the kick-off by Noah Caluori gave England a good platform in the Australia 22. They worked the ball through the hands and found Hammick in the corner to score.
Australia were to have the final say, however, as Enasio gathered a loose ball to race away and Harvey converted to see his side emerge 68-40 winners and claim fifth place.
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