World Rugby U20 Championship: France too powerful for Wales
- Published
Wales number eight Morgan Morse has been one of the leading players in the tournament
Under-20 World Championship: France v Wales |
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France (24) 43 |
Tries: Depoortere 2, Mondinat, Carbonneau, Julien, Moustin Cons Mondinat 5 Pens: Mondinat |
Wales (7) 19 |
Tries: Driscoll, Florence, Houston Cons Edwards 2 |
Fourteen-man France proved too strong for battling Wales as the Junior World Championship pool stage ended in South Africa.
The title holders and Six Nations-winners lost hooker Barnabe Massa for a dangerous challenge early on.
But France were never in danger of losing in Cape Town as they topped Pool A to stay in 2023 contention.
Wales will contest fifth to eighth place in the competition and next face Georgia on Sunday, 9 July.
France's Nicolas Depoortere scored twice with further scores from Clement Mondinat, Leo Carbonneau and Lino Julien at the Athlone Sports Stadium with Mondinat adding five conversions.
Seb Driscoll, Tom Florence and Harri Houston hit back for Wales and Daniel Edwards converted two of the tries.
Having conceded 11 tries to their French counterparts in a 67-17 defeat in March, a 6-3 try deficit may have been something of a consolation for Mark Jones' side.
France looked in ominous form going into the encounter having comfortably beaten New Zealand 35-14 and scoring more than 70 points against Japan.
But even though indiscipline again cost them late on as they finished with lock Brent Liufau off for a high tackle, France still mustered a final try for Mael Moustin.
Wales boss Mark Jones told S4C: "We believed we could win, but when you have 60% scrums, 60% line-out and get 10 linebreaks and get into the 22 in the first 20 minutes four times and you only convert once, you make it pretty hard for yourselves.
"We clearly needed to get out of the blocks well today early, get some positive mentality to our performance, but unfortunately we were inaccurate early on and when you let France off the hook, they've got players that can punish you.
"We had a lot of overlaps but didn't nail our passing and were very inaccurate in our finishing. We created an awful lot, which is positive and credit to the lads for that.
"But top level sport is about taking your opportunities, not creating them and we're disappointed with that."
Wales U20s: Cameron Winnett (Cardiff); Tom Florence (Ospreys), Louie Hennessey (Bath), Bryn Bradley (Harlequins), Harri Houston (Ospreys); Dan Edwards (Ospreys), Archie Hughes (Scarlets); Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths (Dragons), Sam Scarfe (Dragons), Kian Hire (Ospreys), Liam Edwards (Ospreys), Jonny Green (Harlequins), Ryan Woodman (capt, Dragons), Seb Driscoll (Harlequins), Morgan Morse (Ospreys).
Replacements: Lewis Lloyd (Ospreys), Josh Morse (Scarlets), Louis Fletcher (Ospreys), Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff), Gwilym Evans (Cardiff), Harri Williams (Ampthill), Harri Wilde (Cardiff), Joe Westwood (Dragons).
France U20s: Theo Attissogbe; Nicolas Depoortere (capt), Maxence Biasotto, Arthur Mathiron, Mael Moustin; Clement Mondinat, Leo Carbonneau; Lino Julien, Barnabe Massa, Zaccharie Affane, Brent Liufau, Posolo Tuilagi, Esteban Capilla, Andy Timo, Mathis Castro-Ferreira.
Replacements: Thomas Lacombre, Alexandre Kaddouri, Thomas Duchene, Lenni Nouchi, Noa Zinzen, Baptiste Jauneau, Hugo Reus, Paul Costes.
Referee: Takehito Namekawa (Japan)