Seven-try France hammer New Zealand to book U20 final versus England

Defending champions France remain on course to win their fourth successive World Rugby U20 Championship after they hammered New Zealand 55-31 in an action-packed semi-final in Cape Town.

Beaten 26-27 by an 80th-minute Baby Blacks penalty in a July 4 pool match in Stellenbosch, the French only reached the last four as the tournament’s best runner-up across the three pools courtesy of last Tuesday’s victory over Wales.

However, they made brilliant use of that reprieve to blitz New Zealand in this rematch with a smashing attacking performance. They scored four first-half tries to lead 34-14 at the break and then added three more to set up a decider next Friday versus England, the team who came to Pau 17 weeks ago to win 45-31 and clinch the age-grade Six Nations title.

With the marvellous Hugo Reus at the very top of his orchestral game and Mathis Castro-Ferreira gluttonously dominating in the forwards, France began like an express train, scoring tries on four and seven minutes to take an early 14-point lead.

New Zealand had only themselves to blame for the first concession, failing to properly protect themselves at a ruck by having enough players on guard. This vulnerability was exploited by Joe Quere Karaba, who picked up and took the direct route to the line from the 22, and Reus converted.

The next score, though, was all about French flair rather than Kiwi shortcomings in defence. Hoani Bosmorin motored down the left and threw a pass to Reus, who produced something ridiculously sublime by lofting a pass inside while in the air over the touchline as he was tackled by Rico Simpson. Charly Gambini grasped the dropping ball to score and Reus slotted the sideline conversion.

New Zealand hit back on 10 minutes, a penalty try coming from a collapsed driving maul. Geoffrey Malaterre was yellow-carded for the offence but if being a man short was supposed to impede the French, the message never got passed on as they ‘won’ the sin-binning 10-7.

A gigantic break from Barnabe Massa fractured the Kiwis and when the play probed right, tighthead Lino Julien delivered a sweet assist for Castro-Ferreira to dive in at the corner. Reus guided over the conversion and also landed a 19-minute penalty from the 10-metre line three minutes after Dylan Pledger sold the French a pup with a lovely dash to the line for a converted try when a ruck was left unguarded.

All that tremendous high-tempo action left the scoreline 24-14 in favour of the French and there was more to come. Jonathan Lee would have felt unfortunate to have been held up over the line with a quick penalty tap for New Zealand from five metres out and that let-off was costly as France had 10 further points on the board by the 33rd minute.

Playing a man off the ball cost the Baby Blacks possession and with the resulting French lineout purposely going over the top and being caught in the midfield, a penalty advantage was subsequently won down the other touchline, inviting Reus to look up and kick back to the other side and give the ball-catching Castro-Ferreira an easy run-in.

Next, a Bosmorin kick ahead temped Simpson to run the ball back from his line but he was mowed down and penalised for a no-release, allowing Reus to kick the penalty.

Behind by 20 points, New Zealand needed relief but a sloppy Lee fumble left them frustrated as did a penalty kick to touch by Simpson that instead went dead, leaving them heading down the tunnel with a vastly bigger mountain to climb than the 11-point margin they were behind at the break in Stellenbosch 10 days ago.

Just five minutes after coming back up the tunnel, their situation worsened as pick-and-go wore them down and Castro-Ferreira dived over for his hat-trick try, a score inevitably added to by Reus for 41-14. New Zealand fleetingly thought they had a straw to clutch with a 50th-minute yellow card for French sub loosehead Lorencio Boyer-Gallardo.

However, TMO detected some follow-up foul play from Stanley Solomon on the clearance-kicking Leo Carbonneau. Instead of 10 minutes with a man advantage and penalty kick to the corner, the penalty was overturned and Solomon also received a yellow card that was quickly upgraded to red.

That should have been the end of it but New Zealand scored unconverted tries in a four-minute spell from sub King Maxwell, with his first touch, and Aki Tuivailala to make it 41-24 with a full 20 minutes still to play.

Was one of the greatest comebacks of all time now suddenly a possibility? No was the blunt answer as Mathis Ferte picked off a Simpson pass and raced from his own half to score the try that Reus converted for 48-24.

The Kiwis still weren’t done as there was a converted Andrew Smith try on 67 minutes, but neither were France finished and Reus’ crosskick put in Xan Mousques for their seventh converted try nine minutes from the finish of what was a spectacular team performance.