England are world champions! U20s rugby stars end France’s era of dominance – and an eight-year title drought – with dominant 21-13 win in Cape Town

England have won the World Junior Championships in Cape Town, ending France’s dominance of the annual tournament, which saw France use their scrum as a weapon of mass destruction.

Tryes from Joe Bailey and Arthur Green, along with 11 points from Harlequins centre Sean Kerr, propelled Mark Mapletoft’s national Under-20 side to global glory. It was England’s fourth title and their first since 2016, and it was overwhelmingly built on pack power in the set-piece.

While Steve Borthwick, the head coach of the Red Rose senior team, has announced his main mission: to develop a new generation of great scrummagers, this was another timely and encouraging example of the emerging talent in the age groups.

England outplayed the French scrum from start to finish, led by the excellent props, Sale’s Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Gloucester’s Afolabi Fasogbon.

The formidable duo, aided and abetted by the rest of Mapletoft’s all-powerful pack, utterly eclipsed their rivals, England winning a flurry of scrum penalties and using the platform to turn the screws on France, who were seeking a fourth successive title.

Instead, the 2024 England crop followed the example of their predecessors in 2013, 2014 and 2016 by winning the coveted under-20 award, in addition to the Six Nations title they won earlier that year.

There was a thundering performance from the towering Racing 92 lock, Junior Kpoku, watched by his club-mate, World Cup-winning Springbok captain, Siya Kolisi – who danced with schoolchildren in the stands. On this evidence, the RFU will be desperate to lure Kpoku back to the Premiership as soon as possible so he can be considered for a senior call-up.

Captain and Leicester forward Finn Carnduff lifted the trophy, crowning a great England campaign which saw them beat Argentina, Fiji and hosts South Africa in the group stages before beating Ireland 31-20 in the semi-finals.

France had beaten the ‘Baby Blacks’ of New Zealand 55-31 in their last four games and went into the deciding game full of confidence. But that lasted until they got caught in the English scrum.

“We’ve used our set piece to our advantage,” Carnduff said. “I can’t believe it, honestly. It’s amazing. It’s a super special group and we’re brothers for life. To win two trophies together, I can’t believe it.”

There was a display of muscle from England as early as the third minute, as the pack pushed their rivals back in the first scrum of the game. It set the tone for what was to follow. In the ninth minute a penalty was taken for touch down the left, giving England an attacking lineout and the attackers fired through the French 22 with a dominant drive, until a knock-on saw the danger cleared.

While Mapletoft’s men were armed with a noticeable power advantage, they suffered a series of lineout failures and were also troubled by the breakdown. France took the lead through a penalty from La Rochelle fly-half Hugo Reus and Gallic No 8 Mathis Castro-Ferreira caused havoc with his carrying and jackals.

The Toulouse rookie was involved in a stunning French counter-attack in the 20th minute, which culminated in a touchdown from Mathis Ferte on the left after a slick touch down the pitch. But the brilliant team effort was ruled out on review for a knock-on in the run-up.

England made the most of their delay, applying more scrum pressure and creating more scoring chances. In the 24th minute, from another lineout drive, No. 8 Kane James crashed over but could not ground the ball.

The set-piece attack continued and England were awarded more attacking penalties, but Sean Kerr fired wide with two shots on target just after the half-hour mark. Somehow England were still without a point, but that soon changed.

Four minutes before half time the pressure finally relented. After another lineout drive, on the right, the ball was sent upfield and Angus Hall burst through a gap, before handing the ball to Ioan Jones. The fullback was stopped, but England were not. Ollie Allan’s sniping run took them to the line and from the ensuing ruck, lock Joe Bailey crashed through the French defence to score.

Kerr converted the ball to make it 7-3, but England were pushed back just before half-time. Another penalty for France was well converted by Reus, reducing the deficit to a single point in the second half.

A double change to the French front row just after the break failed to turn the tide. Castro-Perreira was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Henry Pollock and soon after Kerr converted a penalty to make it 10-6. In the 53rd minute the scrum dominance led to a second England try, as the pack drove hard and Green was able to pick up and stretch to strike from close range.

Two more penalties from Kerr reflected England’s command and the game was long over before Ferte raced across the line for a consolation try, converted by Reus. France finished with some respectability on the scoreboard, but England ended up with the title.