Baby Blacks conquer the world

New Zealand clinched the IRB World Junior Championship by recording a 44-28 victory over England on Sunday.

New Zealand clinched the IRB World Junior Championship by recording an emphatic 44-28 victory over England in the tournament's final in Tokyo on Sunday.

Despite a strong start at the Prince Chichibu Stadium, England Under-20 could not live with the pace and handling of the All Blacks, who might have won by a bigger margin.

It was against the run of play that Tom Homer kicked England into an early 6-0 lead with a pair of penalties.

Robbie Robinson responded with a try for New Zealand, but England restored their six-point advantage when James Gaskell was awarded a try despite appearing to drop the ball short of the line.

But the All Blacks then stunned England with three tries in the space of five minutes before the half-hour mark.

Zac Guildford got the first and then Aaron Cruden, having first kicked a penalty to put New Zealand in front, went over twice in quick succession.

With Cruden missing three of his first four conversion attempts, Homer cut the deficit to 11, 25-14, with another penalty five minutes before half-time.

Any hopes of an England fightback were hit early in the second half as Shaun Treeby was able to run in unopposed, and Cruden's conversion made it 32-14.

A video review confirmed that Carl Fearns had forced the ball over for an England try and Homer cut the gap to 11 points with the conversion.

Guildford's second try of the afternoon just after the hour mark effectively settled matters as New Zealand moved 16 points clear.

Even with Latu Talakai in the sin bin, Brayden Mitchell put the icing on the cake with another try nine minutes from time, rendering David Lewis' late try nothing more than consolation for England.

The scorers:

For New Zealand U20:
Tries: Robinson, Guildford 2, Cruden 2, Treeby, Mitchell
Con: Cruden 3
Pen: Cruden

For England U20:
Tries: Gaskell, Ferns, Lewis
Cons: Homer, Miller
Pens: Homer 3

The teams:

New Zealand:15 Robbie Robinson, 14 Nafi Tuitavake, 13 Winston Stanley, 12 Shaun Treeby, 11 Zac Guildford, 10 Aaron Cruden (c), 9 Frae Wilson, 8 Trent Boswell-Wakefield, 7 Berny Hall, 6 Brendon O'Connor, 5 Daniel Faleafa, 4 Alex Ryan, 3 Ma'afu Fia, 2 Brayden Mitchell, 1 Willie Ioane Afuvai.
Replacements: 16 Shae Tamati, 17 Latu Talakai, 18 Leighton Price, 19 Elliot Dixon, 20 Tom Taylor, 21 Codey Rei, 22 Ken Pisi Siaosi.

England U20: 15 Tom Homer, 14 George Lowe, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Luke Eves, 11 Charlie Sharples, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Carl Fearns, 7 Calum Clark (c), 6 Courtney Lawes, 5 James Gaskell, 4 Graham Kitchener, 3 Bob Baker, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ben Moon.
Replacements: 16 James Clark, 17 Shaun Knight, 18 Dan
Williams, 19 Josh Ovens, 20 Dave Lewis, 21 Rob Miller, 22 Jack Cobden.

Referee: James Jones (Wales)
Assistant Referees Peter Allan Scotland, Jérôme Garces (France)
TMO Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)