The third-fourth place play-off match pitched Wales U21 against their fellow pool opponents, New Zealand U21, whom the young dragons had played less than nine days previously suffering a 73-19 defeat. Chris Davey’s side were on the receiving end of a Kiwi back-lash after the Baby Blacks had fluffed their lines in the single-point defeat by South Africa U21 in the other semi-final; New Zealand U21 scored eight converted tries plus a penalty to consign a tired Wales U21 team to a second head-to-head tournament defeat.
The Kiwi machine got into full throttle within ten minutes as fullback Ben Atiga and Bradley Mika put New Zealand U21 into an early 14-0 lead. The Baby Blacks moved up through the gears and were 21-0 up by the time fly-half Dan Carter had converted flanker Sione Lanaki’s try.
Wales U21 applied some return pressure to the New Zealand onslaught and after a well-worked team move the young dragons were able to hit back with a try through Gareth Swales which Nicky Robinson converted to redress the try count thus far at 3-1.
Applying a mantra of ‘you score, we score’ Wales U21’s euphoria at having arrived in the match was quickly snuffed out by a fourth try virtually from the restart by Lifeimi Mafi. By the time Carter had added a penalty to New Zealand U21’s four converted tries the Kiwis were 31-7 ahead at the break.
The match opened up in the second half as replacements became a huge factor for both sides. Corey Flynn went to the sin-bin for an infringement in the 58th minute but the one-man advantage still failed to provide the opportunties Wales U21 needed to break through the Kiwi defence. New Zealand U21 by contrast were only beginning to enjoy themselves and spread the play field wide to produce three tries from Thomas Harding, Anthony Tuitavaki and another from Atiga which Carter converted before his replacement, Jason Shoemark crossed the line in injury-time and converted his own try to leave the Baby Blacks in the third place overall with a 59-7 victory.
