Captain Ryan Woodman and Head Coach Mark Jones were left to rue a raft of missed opportunities as Wales Under-20s fell to a 43-19 defeat to 14-man France in the World Rugby Championships in South Africa.
Woodman was full of praise for the clinical French, who played 60 minutes with 14 men and the final six with 13.
It was the second defeat in three pool games for Wales Under-20s and they will now fight it out for fifth place.
Their semi-final on Sunday will be against Georgia, who are guaranteed their highest finish at the tournament.
“They kept the ball alive very well when they had it and they were very hard to stop. We made a lot of mistakes and they captialised on every one of them – they were just more clinical,” said Woodman.
“We’re a bit frustrated we didn’t get the bonus point at the end after coming close a number of times. We didn’t make the most of a number of our chances and we gave them too many.
“We dug in but the result didn’t go our way. I can’t fault the effort and I think we’ve showed we are better team now than we were at the Six Nations.”
Jones and his coaching staff will now have to get their team ready for a massive match against the vastly improved Georgians, who managed to ‘nil’ Argentina and beat the Italian team that had won against South Africa. The winners will face either New Zealand or Australia in the 5th place final.
“They didn’t put their best performance out there against France and I’m disappointed for the lads. They tried their best, they just didn’t nail their best performance and now we have to dust ourselves off and get on with the next game,” said Jones.
“We didn’t make the most of line-breaks and opportunities to dig into their territory. Instead, we just coughed up possession way too easily and let them off the hook.
“France dominated the scoreboard, but in terms of opportunities, territory and field position it was strong from us. 60% territory and 55% possession. We were way too loose.”
We’re a bit frustrated we didn’t get the bonus point at the end after coming close a number of times. We didn’t make the most of a number of our chances and we gave them too many...
