Relton on the mark as England win again

By Mark Stevens
25/6/21

England Under-20s maintained their perfect start to this season’s Under-20s Six Nations Championship with a 31-12 victory over Scotland in Cardiff.

Fresh from their success over France seven days earlier, Alan Dickens’ side proved too hot for the Scots, who were well beaten by Ireland in their seasonal opener.

The night, however, belonged to England - who again included Exeter Chiefs youngster, Arthur Relton, in their starting line-up at the Arms Park.

Captain Jack Van Poortvliet opened the scoring for England inside the opening three minutes, spotting a gap around the fringes of the ruck five metres out from Scotland’s try line and he had the pace to score. Fin Smith added the conversion.

Scotland responded almost immediately after finding success with the driving maul as Christian Townsend, son of Scotland and British and Irish Lions coach Gregor, touched down to score.

England hooker Sam Riley, who looked dangerous in attack throughout the game, showed superb hands to throw an inside ball for fly-half Smith who raced over for England’s second try before converting his own effort.

The moment of the half, however, came from England winger Deago Bailey who showed incredible speed when the ball was spread wide, beating his opposite man to score in the corner and make it 19-5 at the break.

England continued their fine form into the second half as Man of the Match Riley threw a dummy and then raced through after 50 minutes to score.

Riley saw yellow shortly after his try for infringing at the breakdown as Scotland began to build into the game and were camped on England’s line. England were then reduced to 13 players with 20 minutes left on the clock when flanker Lucas Brooke was shown a red card after a head collision in a tackle.

Scotland looked to have capitalised on their advantage with a try under the posts only for the TMO to rule that England’s Harry Taylor had held the ball up. However, they eventually broke through after 67 minutes when flanker Ollie Leatherbarrow crashed over from two metres out.

England, though, extended their lead soon after when a beautifully placed cross-field kick from Smith found Relton who stepped inside to score England’s fifth try.

Scotland had a late try disallowed when replays showed Scott King had put a foot in touch before scoring with the final whistle making it 31-12 to England in a display that would have pleased head coach Alan Dickens.

Next up for England is Ireland on July 1 with kick off at 20:00 BST as they look to make it three wins from three in the championship.

Dickens said: "It was a fantastic effort from the players. After the French game we said there were areas we could improve and I think there are things we could improve going into the Ireland game but we're really pleased with the result. The boys did really well to stick in today. When we were down to 13 men I thought the character they showed was outstanding."