England U20 18 Australia U20 13

England stunned Australia against the odds at Newport to reach the semi-finals of the Junior World Championship with two brilliant tries from Miles Benjamin.

The Worcester wing opened the scoring in the first half then pounced two minutes from time with a superb opportunist effort to clinch victory for a team that had refused to buckle against the third seeds.

The underdogs had startled Australia as they dominated the first half with Benjamin’s early try and two Alex Goode penalties edging them ahead until the hour until giant wing Ratu Nasiganiyavi’s scored in the corner.

Queensland Reds fly half Quade Cooper added a superb touchline conversion to add to his two first half penalties and despite Australia going a man down in the closing stages they looked like finishing the game in control.

But an attack and chip down the blindside saw full back Dane Haylett-Petty’s clearing kick charged down and Benjamin was on hand to grab the ball and touch down with Goode converting from wide on the right.

The Pool C decider was effectively a quarter-final, with England now heading for a Cardiff showdown, almost certainly against South Africa, on Wednesday night and Australia going into the play-offs for fifth to eighth place starting with a likely clash against Samoa in Swansea.

England pinned Australia back in the first 10 minutes, putting them under set-piece pressure while both sides forced errors around the breakdown.

Their directness startled Australia’s midfield defence, too, and enabled England to strike first when Benjamin showed the finishing power that has lit up the Premiership this season.

Jordan Turner-Hall smashed through the middle, Luke Eves rode a tackle then found the Worcester wing who blasted through Blair Cooper’s challenge and surged over from 20 metres.

Saracens fly half Goode couldn’t convert and his opposite number Cooper got Australia on the scoreboard four minutes later with a straightforward penalty.

Goode then hit the target from 40 metres at the end of the first quarter, only for England to concede a penalty coming in from the side of a ruck which Cooper stroked over from the 10 metre line.

Goode was just short from extreme long-range but his side continued to edge the contest, forcing Australia into more problems at the scrum, seeing scrum half Joe Simpson hauled down five metres short and then going close when Goode and Benjamin combined through the middle.

Finally the pressure was translated into points as Goode added his second penalty two minutes before the break, leaving England to soak up the pressure of some increasingly dangerous attacks.

Nasiganiyavi was a major threat down the left, twice fending off tackles early in the second half before England went desperately close again when Simpson led an 80 metre break out with Benjamin again beating the last tackler to cross the line only for the final pass to be judged forward.

They were reduced to 14 men in the 56th minute, though, when captain Hugo Ellis was judged yellow carded for lying on the wrong side of a ruck after Dane Haylett-Petty had split England’s covering defence.

And Australia duly delivered their first try when England were stretched on the left, Nasiganiyavi strolled over in the corner and Cooper converted from the touchline to give the third seeds the lead.

They couldn’t score again with Ellis off the field, though, then Goode missed with a drop goal effort, then with a penalty from wide on the right after Australia went a man down as flanker Ben Coridas was binned 13 minutes from time.

Cooper also missed the target from long range to set up a tense final few minutes and then came the thrilling final act as England pressed forward once more with Benjamin on hand to seal a semi-final place in Cardiff.

England: Noah Cato (Saracens); Seb Stegmann (Harlequins), Luke Eves (Bristol Rugby), Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins), Miles Benjamin (Worcester Warriors); Alex Goode (Saracens), Joe Simpson (London Wasps); Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby), Joe Gray (Northampton Saints), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Scott Hobson (Cornish Pirates), Gregor Gillanders (Leicester Tigers), Jon Fisher (London Irish), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie), Hugo Ellis (London Wasps, captain).
Replacements: Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers) for Simpson 74, Alex Tait (Newcastle Falcons) for Stegmann 74.
Scorers: Tries: Benjamin 2. Conversion: Goode. Penalties: Goode 2.
Yellow card: Ellis 56-66.
Australia: Dane Haylett-Petty; Blair Connor, Rob Horne, Ben Tupuai, Junior Sovala Futi; Quade Cooper, Will Genia; Ben Daley, James Hanson, Daniel Palmer, Sam Wykes, Rob Simmons, Benjamin Coridas, David Pocock (captain), Ben McCalman.
Replacements: Albert Anae for Palmer 54, Seilala Lam for McCalman 48, Ratu Nasiganiyavi for Tupuai 14,
Scorers: Try: Nasiganiyavi. Conversion: Cooper. Penalties: Cooper 2.
Yellow card: Coridas 67-77.
Referee: Romain Poite (France).

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