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

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.

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.

• Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live coverage of matches from the 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship in countries that don’t have an exclusive local host broadcaster deal