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U20 champions France see off Wales to keep their title defence alive

France's Nathan Bollengier goes on the attack versus Wales in Athlone (Photo by Carl Fourie/World Rugby)

Defending champions France have kept alive their bid to win a fourth World Rugby U20 Championship in a row by defeating Wales 29-11 at Athlone with a four-try bonus point.

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With Pool A leaders New Zealand running up a big 45-13 score in the 7pm kick-off in Stellenbosch and progressing with a total of 15 match points after their match day three game was abandoned at half-time, the French had a head-to-head shootout with the Welsh to decide second place in the pool.

They went into the 4:30pm game thankful that tournament officials had passed the pitch in Athlone playable just two and a half hours after the scheduled 2pm kick-off featuring Ireland and Australia to decide the Pool B winners was cancelled due to the inclement weather.

With conditions having improved by the time of their late afternoon kick-off, the French knew that a bonus point win would lift them to 11 match points, a total that the Pool B and C runners-up would not be able to match.

While Wales were sticky opposition in the early exchanges, even taking a fourth-minute lead through a Harri Ford penalty and later closing to just 7-6 behind, France led 21-6 at the interval thanks two tries from Hoani Bosmorin (eight and 37 minutes) and Thomas Lacombre (33).

Within seconds of Wales suffering a 44th-minute yellow card to Isaac Young, the French grabbed their bonus score through Mathis Castro-Ferreira. Welsh heads didn’t drop, and they hit back with a 71st-minute Morgan Morse try, but it was France’s night.

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Comments

1 Comment
J
J Marc 118 days ago

Nathan Bollengier didn't play this afternoon, I think it's a picture of Maxence Biazotto.

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