Jordan Joseph hat-trick guides France U20 to 36-20 win over Fiji

France U20 36-20 Fiji U20, Racecourse Stadium
Scorecard

France started their World Rugby U20 Championship campaign with a 36-20 bonus point win over Fiji at Racecourse Stadium.

Donovan Taofifenua set the proceedings with a try in the opening minute for France that was followed by a conversion from Mathieu Smaili but back to back penalties from Caleb Muntz made the scoreline 7-6.

Smaili kicked his maiden penalty goal in the 15th minute and France soon managed their second try with this time Jordan Joseph going over the line around the 25th minute. Fiji though remained in contention with Taniela Ramasibana dotting down and Muntz improving it making the scoreline 15-13 at the end of the first half.

France started the second half with a bit of a setback with Ethan Dumortier sin-binned but with Fiji failing to capitalise on the advantage, Leo Coly (52') and Joseph (58') provided France with clear advantage taking the scoreline 29-13.

Osea Waqannavatu's touchdown in the 65th minute gave Fiji hope but Joseph with his third try of the game ensured there was no looking back was France completed a 36-20 win.

France captain Matthis Lebel said: “The game was very difficult because Fiji are a big team. Our performance was good in parts and bad in parts. The second half was much better.”

Fiji captain Tevita Ikanivere said: “We worked on our weaknesses from the Oceania tournament and we gave France a good game in the first half. They came back at us in the second half and we couldn’t stay in it for the whole 80 minutes.

"We saw today we can play for 40, 60 but we need to play for the whole 80 minutes.”

Wales began their World U20 Championship with a thrilling 30-25 win over hosts Argentina in Pool A.

Cai Evans kicked 20 points for the Welsh as he guided his side to victory while Ryan Conbeer and Harri Morgan dotted down.

This game was nip and tuck throughout and Argentina's tries came via Francisco Minervino, Rodrigo Isgro and Ignacio Mendy but after putting in a dazzling display in the second-half of this fixture last year, there was to be no repeat as Wales held on for the victory.