U20 Six Nations round-up: trio feature in opening round

England U20 Men got their Six Nations campaign off to winning ways, downing Scotland 24-41 in Edinburgh.

Alan Dickens' men ran in six tries at the Dam Health Stadium in Edinburgh, securing an impressive bonus-point victory.

England dominated possession and territory from kick off, pinning the hosts deep inside their own half thanks to a flurry of early penalties, though nothing came of the resulting lineouts.

Scotland struck first, scoring on their first visit to England's 22. No.8 Ollie Leatherbarrow crashing over from close range on the 13-minute mark.

England drew level thanks to a sublime solo score courtesy of Henry Arundell, who ran the entire length of the pitch off a defensive scrum, scrambling around Scottish defenders and cantering over the line unopposed.

Leatherbarrow's second try was converted by Christian Townsend, putting the hosts 12-5 up, but England captain Toby Knight had the final say of the half, barrelling over off the back of a rolling maul to cut the deficit to two points at the break.

England found themselves under immediate pressure at the start of the second half, sharp attack from Scotland wing Ross McKnight on the right side of the pitch was the catalyst behind an Ollie Melville try on the left side of the pitch.

Undeterred, England fought back, and an easy offer of three points on the 50-minute mark was duly converted by Jamie Benson, before a converted Tom Carr-Smith try moments later gave England the lead for the first time.

With 15 minutes remaining Scottish replacement Olujare Oguntibeju was shown a yellow card, and the visitors took immediate advantage, as Knight crossed for his second try of the evening. Benson's successful conversion extended England's lead to 17-27.

From the restart George Hendy ran the length of the pitch to set up Ethan Grayson for England's fifth try, and Tom Litchfield bagged number six in the final minutes of the match. Benson converted both to make it 17-41. 

Gregor Hiddleston powered over for a Scotland try in the 83rd minute, securing a losing bonus point.

Wales Under 20s started their Six Nations campaign in disappointing fashion as they were comprehensively beaten by an impressive Ireland side in Cork.

Byron Hayward’s side conceded eight tries in total as they were taken to the cleaners physically, and missed far too many tackles. Wales actually started brightly, and looked dangerous with ball in hand but the final pass failed to stick on several occasions.

But Ireland opened the scoring with a well-crafted try as Chay Mullins acrobatically finished at the far right-hand corner. Things went from bad to worse for Wales when wing Oli Andrew was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock on.

Ireland made the most of their numerical advantage when Matthew Devine snipped over for their second try. Wales couldn’t cope with the power and the dynamism of Ireland’s ball carriers, and they were soon celebrating their third try when Mark Morrisey smashed his way over the line to give the hosts a 22-0 lead at the interval.

It took Ireland a mere two minutes of the second half to claim their bonus point try with Reuben Crothers touching down. The floodgates had now well and truly opened, and James McNabney made the most of Ireland’s dominant driving maul to score.

As if things were difficult enough Wales lock Joe Peard got shown a yellow card for repeatedly giving away penalties. After winning the hard yards in the tight Ireland went wide to allow Mullins to claim his brace.

James McCormick was next on the scoreboard as he powered over from another well-worked driving lineout. It took Wales 75 minutes to get on the scoreboard with a tremendous pass from Jac Lloyd putting Andrew into space with the winger showing his strength to brush off three tacklers to score.

But any reprieve was short lived as Ben Brownlee forced his way over for Ireland’s eight try which took the hosts past half a century of points.