Townsend suffers U-20s loss

Exeter Chiefs youngster Stu Townsend suffered Six Nations disappointment as England Under-20s kicked off their 2015 campaign with defeat away to Wales.

Scrum-half Townsend featured for just over an hour in the 21-15 loss at Eirias Park in Colwyn Bay before he was replaced by Sale's James Mitchell.

On a difficult day for Jon Callard's side, they got off to a difficult start and found themselves 3-0 down with three minutes on the clock from the boot of Welsh fly-half Dan Jones.

It got worse when flanker Charlie Beckett was sent to the sin-bin for a late tackle minutes later, but England regrouped and scored while a man down when No. 8 James Chisholm controlled the ball brilliantly before picking up to score. Rory Jennings added the extras to make it 7-3.

Jones then added his second penalty for Wales before the impressive Howard Packman set up Joe Marchant to score on his Under 20 bow to make it 12-6 in England's favour.

Wales had the last say of the half when hooker Liam Belcher burrowed over to score in the corner, the conversation went wide making it 12-11 to England at the break.

Jones scored his third penalty early in the second half to give Wales the lead, and with Kieran Treadwell and Paul Hill in the sinbin Wales took full advantage to score in the corner through Tom Phillips to make it 21-12.

Jennings scored his first penalty after 60 minutes to make it 21-15, which is how it stayed, despite an English onslaught towards the Welsh try line in the dying moments.

Callard said: “It was a disappointing game for us. Wales came out and disrupted our set-piece and game plan, and full credit to them for that. It’s a big learning curve for us, we put heavy pressure on their line towards the end but couldn’t find the breakthrough. We’ll regroup and review and we’ll be better for it as we look ahead to Italy next Friday.”

Captain Charlie Ewels added: “We’re hugely frustrated with the result. We did a lot of things well, but equally we know that there’s a lot to work on. We didn’t manage the game as best we can and that’s what cost us. Full credit to Wales though, they took their chances and deserved the win.”

England Under-20s squad against Wales

15 Piers O’Conor (Wasps)
14 George Perkins (Saracens)
13 Joe Marchant (Harlequins)
12 Max Clark (Bath Rugby)
11 Howard Packman (Northampton Saints)
10 Rory Jennings (Bath Rugby)
9 Stuart Townsend (Exeter Chiefs)
1 Ellis Genge (Bristol Rugby)
2 Jack Walker (Yorkshire Carnegie)
3 Paul Hill (Yorkshire Carnegie)
4 Kieran Treadwell (Harlequins)
5 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, captain)
6 Charlie Beckett (Leicester Tigers)
7 Will Owen (Leicester Tigers)
8 James Chisholm (Harlequins)

Replacements:

16 Jake Farnworth (Leicester Tigers)
17 Seb Adeniran-Olule (Harlequins)
18 Ciaran Parker (Sale Sharks) on for Paul Hill 55 mins
19 Joe Batley (Gloucester Rugby) on for Charlie Beckett 53 mins
20 Josh Bainbridge (Yorkshire Carnegie) on for Will Owen 53 mins
21 James Mitchell (Sale Sharks) on for Stuart Townsend 63 mins
22 Tom Morton (Sale Sharks)
23 Tom Fowlie (London Irish)