Winning start for England U-20s

Exeter Chiefs' Joel Conlon played 30 minutes of England Under-20s nine-try victory over Italy in the IRB Junior World Championships.

The match in Pukekohe, New Zealand, which England won 63-3, saw a hat-trick of tries from Nathan Earle, two from Gus Jones, two from James Chisholm and one-apiece from Billy Burns and George Catchpole. Sam Olver added 16 points with the boot and Burns two.

Olver and Jake McIntyre exchanged early penalties to make it 3-3, Olver’s second put the defending champions 6-3 up before Earle’s first try made it 13-3 after a smart chip through from Aaron Morris.

England’s second came from a rolling maul and was touched down by Jones – his fifth England under-20 try. And the third was another one for the forwards, Chisholm scoring from the back of a dominant England scrum.

England made a quick start to the second 40 as Earle made a break through for his second and the Saracens wing had his hat-trick a minute later, tracking a quick break from Harry Sloan before flying over.

With the bonus point in the bag, England scored their sixth try through Chisholm who pounced on a loose ball after a grubber through from Olver.

Jones had his second try with 60 on the clock, in not too dissimilar fashion from his first – dotting down a rolling maul.

Replacement No. 10 Burns scored and converted England’s eighth try before Catchpole had his first and England’s ninth, showing good pace to score out wide.

Captain Callum Braley said: “We’re pleased to kick off our tournament with a win – the scoreline doesn’t reflect what a physical game that was. Italy came pretty hard at us and we really had to step up – we were a bit more clinical in the second half, and we needed to be.

“We’ll learn a lot from this one and look to really push on for our second game against Australia, which we know is going to be a huge match. This tournament is about performing well and getting results, we managed to get the result today but we know that there’s much more to come from us from a performance point of view.”
England Under-20s starting XV against Italy

15 Aaron Morris (Bedford Blues)
14 George Catchpole (Leicester Tigers)
13 Nick Tompkins (Saracens)
12 Harry Sloan (Harlequins)
11 Nathan Earle (Saracens)
10 Sam Olver (Northampton Saints)
9 Callum Braley (Bristol Rugby, capt)
1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (Northampton Saints)
2 Tom Woolstencroft (Bath Rugby)
3 Paul Hill (Leeds Carnegie)
4 Maro Itoje (Saracens)
5 Tom Ellis (Bath Rugby)
6 Ross Moriarty (Gloucester Rugby)
7 Gus Jones (London Wasps)
8 James Chisholm (Harlequins)

Replacements:

16 Jack Walker (Leeds Carnegie) on for Maro Itoje 60 min
17 Alex Lundberg (London Wasps) on Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi 66 mins
18 Biyi Alo (Saracens) on for Paul Hill 54 mins
19 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby) on for Tom Ellis 25 mins
20 Joel Conlon (Exeter Cheifs) on for Ross Moriarty 50 mins
21 Henry Taylor (Loughborough University)
22 Billy Burns (Gloucester Rugby) on for Sam Olver 60 mins
23 Henry Purdy (Leicester Rugby) on for Nick Tompkins 50 mins