England beat France 21-13 to win Under-20 World Cup

France 13-21 England, U20 World Cup Final, Cape Town

England Under 20 claimed their first title since 2016 as they defeated the France counterparts with a 20-13 margin in the final in Cape Town.

Joe Bailey and replacement Arthur Green scored tries for England while Mathis Ferte touched down for France with Hugo Reus kicking two penalties and a conversion.

France opened their account in the 11th minute as Sean Kerr infringed at offside with Reus kicking a penalty goal before England's response came at the stroke of half time when France infringed at offside and eventually Bailey powered his way over the line. Kerr kicked the conversion as England managed to have a 3-7 lead at the end of the opening half.

France were the quickest to get off the block in the second half as England conceded a scrum penalty which Reus converted as the gap between the two teams came down to one point.

France were down to 14 players temporarily as Mathis Castro-Ferreira was sin-binned for a high tackle on Pollard and Kerr kicked a penalty goal to extend England's lead to 6-10. England further extended the lead as Arthur Green dotted down at the base but Kerr failed to kick the conversion. Nevertheless, he made amends with a penalty goal shortly as the scoreline became 6-18.

England's lead extended to 15 points when Kerr converted a scrum penalty which proved enough despite a late consolation try from France through Ferte.

Team line up:

England: 15 Ioan Jones, 14 Angus Hall, 13 Ben Waghorn, 12 Sean Kerr, 11 Alex Wills, 10 Ben Coen, 9 Ollie Allan, 8 Kane James, 7 Henry Pollock, 6 Finn Carnduff (captain), 5 Junior Kpoku, 4 Joe Bailey, 3 Afolabi Fasogbon, 2 Craig Wright, 1 Asher Opoku-Fordjour.

Reserves: 16 James Isaacs, 17 Cameron Miell, 18 James Halliwell, 19 Olamide Sodeke, 20 Arthur Green, 21 Lucas Friday, 22 Josh Bellamy, 23 Jack Bracken.

France: 15 Mathis Ferte, 14 Maxence Biasotto, 13 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12 Robin Taccola, 11 Xan Mousques, 10 Hugo Reus (captain), 9 Leo Carbonneau, 8 Mathis Castro-Ferreira, 7 Geoffrey Malaterre, 6 Joe Quere Karaba, 5 Corentin Mezou, 4 Charly Gambini, 3 Thomas Duchene, 2 Barnabe Massa, 1 Lino Julien.

Reserves: 16 Thomas Lacombre, 17 Samuel Jean-Christophe, 18 Thomas Marceline, 19 Charles Kante Samba, 20 Brent Liufau, 21 Sialevailea Tolofua, 22 Mathys Belaubre, 23 Axel Desperes.