ENGLAND U20S 12 SOUTH AFRICA U20S 26.

HEAD coach Steve Bates felt England under 20s’ outing at Sixways was a “good experience” for his players despite losing 26-12 to South Africa under 20s.

A stunning try from Ben Loader cancelled out an early score from David Kriel before Rewan Kruger went over to give the visitors a 14-7 lead at half-time.

After Schalk Erasmus put the Junior Springboks further in front when he touched down from a driving line-out Henry Walker cut back the deficit in similar style.

But with four minutes remaining Rikus Pretorius intercepted a pass from Sam Morley to secure victory.

England will now head to France for the World Rugby Under 20 Championship which starts later this month on the back of a defeat.

But Bates reckoned it was the perfect test for his team as he looks to iron out their mistakes before the tournament gets underway.

“This was a fantastic workout for us,” Bates said.

“We used a lot of players who trained pretty hard since coming together on Monday. It has been a tough week.

“Fair play to South Africa. They were very physical and played well in the first half.

“Once we sorted out the line-out problem I thought we gave a good account of ourselves.”

Warriors trio Ollie Lawrence, Ted Hill and James Scott all started in what was the first international clash to be played at Sixways in five years.

“We have got to be careful not to judge this game on the result,” Bates continued.

“This was far more useful to us than having a 50-point win against a lesser team.

“It will be an excellent game for us to refer to in the build up to the world championship.

“Some guys were playing their first game, so you have got to take those sorts of things into consideration and we will take quite a lot of positives from it.

“We also know what we have got to work on so overall it was a good experience.”

It did not take long for the Springboks to signal their intent as they rocked England back with a powerful driving maul before opening the scoring.

With just three minutes on the clock, Pretorius fed Kriel who did brilliantly to get the ball down in the corner.

Gianni Lombard added the extras, but the full-back was then sin-binned for not releasing.

With an extra man England sensed their opportunity as they went on the attack before carving out a superb try on 16 minutes.

Tom Parton offloaded to Loader who wriggled out of a tackle, handed off another player before diving over in the corner. James Grayson made the conversion to draw level.

But the Springboks were outmuscling their opponents who struggled in the set-piece and gave away numerous penalties.

On 23 minutes the away side grabbed their second try as scrum-half Kruger burst through a gap to score which Lombard converted.

But England managed to stay within seven points as Lombard missed two penalties either side of half-time.

Lombard made amends with an excellent touch-finder which put England under the cosh before Erasmus dotted down from a driving line-out. Lombard missed the conversion.

As the match wore on England’s replacement forwards started to get on top of their opposite numbers.

Powerful work from the pack then saw Walker drive over on 52 minutes which Morley failed to convert.

England were seven points away from levelling the scores as they edged their way forward in the closing 10 minutes.

But mistakes cost them dear and on 75 minutes Pretorius killed the contest when he latched onto Morley’s stray pass and sprinted through to score under the posts.

Lombard completed the scoring with an easy two points.

England U20s: Parton; Seabrook, Lawrence, Dingwall, Loader (James 40); Grayson (Morley 40), White (Brand 40); Seville (Trinder 40), Oghre (Walker 40), Heyes (Painter 40), Kpoku, Scott (Lewis 47), Hill, Hinkley (Willis 60), Willis (Basham 40).

Attendance: 3,012.

Referee: E Williams.