New Zealand and England to contest junior world rugby final

New Zealand dispatched Wales 31-6 and will face England in the inaugural junior world rugby final after the European champion edged South Africa 26-18 in today’s rain-lashed semifinals.

New Zealand, the pre-tournament favourites who have conceded only one try, will take on an England side which swept the under-20 Six Nations and has won nine straight games in the final on Sunday in Swansea.

At Newport, New Zealand endured some tough defence from Wales to go ahead 10-6 by halftime with two tries.

A cross-field kick set up hooker Quentin MacDonald, and a line-out drive sent in prop Paea Fa’anunu.

While the conditions worsened in the second half, New Zealand adapted and fullback Trent Renata gave his side breathing room with three penalties and a conversion to a counter-attacking try finished by No.8 Nasi Manu, which sealed the victory an hour in. Winger Sean Maitland’s late converted try capped the scoring.

“Our ball security wasn’t flash in the first half and because of that we couldn’t apply pressure,” New Zealand co-coach Dave Rennie said.

“But we worked hard playing into the wind in the first half and that paid off in the second.”

England led 7-0 after five minutes at Cardiff after a try by scrumhalf Joe Simpson, but South Africa shot ahead 15-7 with two tries in three minutes from a fortunate bounce and then a chargedown, both featuring winger Cecil Afrika.

England levelled by the break with an intercept try for winger Noah Cato, then two penalties by flyhalf Alex Goode put them up 21-15.

Francois Brummer’s second penalty for South Africa cut the deficit to three and he missed a chance to level the scores from 50 metres.

England drove across prop Alex Corbisiero in injury time to make certain of reaching the final.

“I think we won the game in the tunnel,” Simpson said. “We were quite psyched up for the match and we just went out there and gave it out all.”