Kiwis are the best young guns

New Zealand were crowned International Rugby Board Under-21 world champions when they beat Australia 21-10 at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford this afternoon.

The teams drew 37-37 when they met in the pool stages, but it was a different story today as the ‘Baby Blacks’ were never behind in the match after taking the lead through lock Ross Kennedy inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour and continued their dominance until the final whistle.

New Zealand’s kicking, though, left something to be desired in the first half, with full-back Ben Atiga being relieved of his duties after missing a penalty and then a conversion chance.

Stephen Donald showed his team-mate how it should be done on 25 minutes to put the Kiwis 8-0 up.

Josh Valentine and skipper Lachlan MacKay were both sin-binned and New Zealand took the opportunity, with Donald popping over another penalty to make it 11-0.

There was just time for Australia to miss a penalty attempt at goal before half-time.

However, the young Wallabies finally got on the scoresheet when Mark Gerrard successfully kicked a penalty four minutes into the second period.

Donald booted his third penalty just before the hour to increase the Kiwis’ advantage to 14-3 and any hopes the Australians had of staging a comeback were all but ended with six minutes to go.

John Pareanga had earlier thought his drive-over score would settle matters, but the ball had been held up.

However, there was no argument when Donald fed Hayden Pederson, who burst through two tackles to score, his team-mate successfully adding the extra points.

Australia at least gave the final scoreline some credibility when Elia Tuqiri ran in a well-worked try with two minutes left, which Gerrard converted.

Elsewhere, Argentina’s Under-21s – known as the Pumitas – gave further credence to the South Americans’ growing status as a major power in world rugby by claiming third place with a 34-30 win over South Africa.

A last-gasp try by centre Horacio San Martin tipped the game Argentina’s way against a South Africa side who had led 13-0 at half-time, but were deprived of captain Schalk Burger by a red card just after the break.

England threw away a substantial first-half lead before going down to a 33-22 defeat to Scotland.

Victory allowed the Scots to claim seventh place ahead of their arch rivals who had been 11 points ahead inside the first 32 minutes at Newbury.

The home side’s fourth loss in five games and their first ever to Scotland at Under-21 level means they have to settle for an eighth-place finish having been overtaken by both Scotland and France.

Wales finished as the top of the home nations even though they were narrowly beaten 24-20 by the French in the battle for fifth place, while Ireland won their ninth-place play-off against Italy 24-19 at Henley.

In the 11th-place play-off, Japan recorded their first win of the World Cup over Canada.