New boys sparkle as England start so well
ENGLAND U20s opened the defence of their Six Nations title with a bonus-point victory over Italy.
England had the narrowest of leads at the break, taking a one-point advantage into half-time thanks to James Grayson’s penalty and Ben Earl’s try.
However, three secondhalf tries from Ben White, Tom Parton and Ben Loader, as well as two conversions from Grayson, stretched the lead and, although Italy were awarded a late penalty try, England sealed the win.
Head coach Steve Bates said: “It was a really credible performance in difficult conditions. We’ve scored four tries, two of them from really well-worked moves. We fought hard and dominated the game territorially. I thought it was a really good start.
“The starting 15 laid a fantastic foundation, which allowed us to make a number of replacements, and give a lot of players their debut and conserve bodies for next Friday.”
Bates is optimistic about his side’s chances in the tournament, adding: “This is a squad full of talented players and selecting a starting 15 has not been easy and the replacements that came on did a really good job.
“We’ll recover, analyse this match and look to go back to our principals of playing high-intensity, high-tempo rugby which are important to us. What we did today was a good foundation for us to go on in the tournament.”
For several of England’s players, Friday’s game marked their debut for the U20s with Toby Trinder, James Scott, Sam Moore, Tom Willis, Fraser Dingwall, White and Loader all winning their first caps.
It was also Northampton Saints Grayson’s first start and it was his boot that scored the first points when Italy were penalised for offside.
England grabbed their first try of the game from a lineout catch-and-drive with Earl bundling over, but they could not convert pressure into points from then on.
On the stroke of half time a succession of penalties took Italy to England’s corner and, after several attempts, they crashed over to score a try through Matteo Canali, which Antonio Rizzi converted.
England were held up shortly after the break, but from the resulting scrum White found space to dart through for his first try for England U20s. Grayson converted to take England out to a 15-7 lead.
Soon after, Parton scored a superb individual try, collecting an up-and-under from just inside Italy’s half before searing through and touching down under the posts with Grayson again adding the extras.
Canali reduced the deficit to 22-10 with a penalty just before the hour, but a fine Loader try in the corner after quick handling by England’s three-quarters sent the wing over for the bonus point.
Late on Gabriel Oghre, Sam Lewis, Josh Basham, Tom Hardwick and Jordan Olowofela all came on, meaning 12 players made their debuts.
Lewis was sin-binned with nine minutes remaining as was Earl late on as Italy were awarded a penalty try for a collapsed maul, but victory was secured and England face Wales on Friday.