France claimed their second European U19s title, comprehensively defeating holders England 48-12 in the deciding game at the CREPS high performance facility, Font Romeu in the Pyrenees, to end the tournament unbeaten.
England scored within nine seconds through prop Jake Lerigo, but the hosts led 26-12 at the break and were excellent in the second period keeping their rivals scoreless and posting tries from stand off Tom Zitter, with a brace, Ilan Boualem and Charly Martinez.
“For us it is amazing,” said France head coach Remi Casty. “We have waited a long time for this, we lost the last two finals and tried hard to put that right. England was tough in the first half but we stuck to our plan, won the collisions and got into positions to score.
“We have a really good group and they deserve to be European Champions. The event has been incredible for all the teams, so well organized, wonderful facilities, quality food, everything was good and we showed France can stage a wonderful tournament.”
England led 12-6 after 20 minutes, but with Zitter impressive France centre Giodarno Descalzi’s first half hat trick gave his side the edge and they dominated thereafter.
“It wasn’t to be, we worked hard but France had some really strong, physical athletes across the park,” said England head coach Gary Hewer. “They wore us down coming in wave after wave, and it was one of those days when we were hanging in at times. We made them work hard for their win, the lads represented us well, so I’m proud.”