U20 6N: England March on

It would be a huge surprise if Ireland, Scotland or Italy beat them this year.

Results Round 2

Ireland vs Italy, 27-26

England vs Wales, 37-21

France vs Scotland, 36-8

Results Round 1

Ireland vs Scotland, 20-19

England vs France, 57-19

Wales vs Italy, 27-5

Ireland vs Italy

For the second successive week Ireland eked out a one-point victory, also an away win, this time at Stadio Enrico Chersoni in Prato. This time Italy scored a converted try near the end to close within a point whereas against Scotland Ireland scored a converted try at the death to win by a point.

Throughout the game Italy challenged strongly. At half-time Ireland led just 6-3. With 16 minutes to play, Italy led 14-13. Then Ireland scored, then Italy scored, then Ireland scored and finally Italy scored – all tries but Italy missed a conversion. Three tries were scored in the last 10 minutes.

The second half was thrilling.

Scorers:

For Ireland:

Tries: Larmour 2, O'Brien

Cons: McPhillips 2, Fitzgerald

Pen:  McPhillips 2

For Italy:

Tries: Ceciliani, Zanon, Rollero

Con: Cioffi

Pens: Rizzi 3

Teams

Italy: 15 Massimo Cioffi, 14 Andrea Bronzini, 13 Ludovico Vaccari, 12 Marco Zanon, 11 Dario Schiabel, 10 Antonio Rizzi, 9 Charly Trussardi, 8 Giovanni Licata, 7 Lorenzo Masselli, 6 Jacopo Bianchi, 5 Gabriele Venditti, 4 Giordano Baldino, 3 Marco Riccioni (captain), 2 Massimo Ceciliani, 1 Daniele Rimpelli

Replacements: 16 Alberto Rollero, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Giosuè Zilocchi, 19 Edoardo Iachizzi, 20 Nardo Casolari, 21 Emilio Fusco, 22 Michelangelo Biondelli, 23 Roberto dal Zilio

Ireland: 15 Colm Hogan, 14 Jordan Larmour, 13 Gavin Mullin, 12 Ciaran Frawley, 11 Calvin Nash, 10 Johnny McPhillips, 9 Jonny Stewart (Queen's University), 8 Caelan Doris, 7 l Boyle, 6 Cillian Gallagher (captain), 5 Oisin Dowling, 4 Fineen Wycherley, 3 Charlie Connolly, 2 Tadgh McElroy, 1 Joey Conway

Replacements: 16 Adam Moloney, 17 Rory Mulvihill, 18 Matthew Burke, 19 Jack Regan, 20 Gavin Coombes, 21 Jack s, 22 Conor Fitzgerald, 23 Tommy O'Brien

Referee: Adam Jones (Wales)

Assistant referees: Simon Rees (Wales), Jonathan Hardy (Wales)

Television match official: Neil Hennessy (Wales)

Assessor: Gordon McMurray (Scotland)

England vs Wales

Parc Eirias in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, was becoming a fortress for Wales Under-20. They had won six successive matches there but then England 2017 arrived.

With seven minutes to go, England had two players in the sin bin and were leading by six points. Then Zach Mercer caught a defensive kick about 40 metres from the Welsh line and scored.

In the first half England played into the wind and scored three tries to lead 24-13 after Wales had raced to 13-0.

Scorers:

For England:

Tries: Randall, Wright, Butler, Mercer

Cons: Umaga 3, Grayson

Pens: Umaga 2, Grayson

For Wales:

Tries: Jones, Coleman

Cons: Jones

Pens: Jones 3

Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Leo Colgan (Ireland), Helen O'Reilly (Ireland)

Television match official: Olly Hodges (Ireland)

France vs Scotland

Five tries to one states clearly the difference between the two sides – France's superiority.

At half- time, in Grenoble up in the Alps, France led 10-3 after lock Mickaël Capelli had opened the score with a try at the half-hour mark.

Scorers

For France:

Tries: Capelli, Couilloud, Fartass, Retière 2

Cons: Ntamack, Darmon 3

Pen: Ntamack

For Scotland:

Try: Dodd

Pen Eastgate

Teams

France: France: 15 Romain Buros, 14 Faraj Fartass, 13 Nathan Decron, 12 Théo Dachary, 11 William Iraguha, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Batiste Couilloud, 8 Charlie Francoz, 7 Killian Bendjaballah, 6 Baptiste Pesenti, 5 Mickaël Capelli, 4 Florian Verhaeghe (captain), 3 Thomas Laclayat, 2 Etienne Fourcade, 1 Léo Aouf

Replacements: 16 Kévin Tougne, 17 Florian Dufour, 18 George-Henri Colombe, 19 Alexandre Roumat, 20 Selevasio Tolofua, 21 Arthur Retière, 22 Thomas Darmon, 23 Théo Millet

Scotland: 15 Stafford McDowall, 14 Robbie Nairn, 13 Craig Pringle, 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Darcy Graham, 10 Josh Henderson, 9 Andrew Simmers, 8 Tom Dodd, 7 Luke Crosbie, 6 Bruce Flockhart, 5 Callum Hunter-Hill(captain), 4 Alex Craig, 3 Adam Nicol, 2 Fraser Renwick, 1 George Thornton

Replacements: 16 Robbie Smith, 17 Daniel Winning, 18 Fergus Bradbury, 19 Hamish Bain, 20 Jamie Ure, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Connor Eastgate, 23 Ross McCann

Coach: Sean Lineen

Referee: Sean Gallagher (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Kieran Barry (Ireland), Ken Imbusch (Ireland)

Television match official: Kevin Beggs (Ireland)