Dragons RFC fly half Harri Ford kicked six points but Wales hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the U20 World Championship were blown of course in storm ridden Cape Town as defending champions France secured a 29-11 victory at Athlone Stadium.
Wales - who included captain Ryan Woodman and Ford from Dragons in the starting line-up while Jordan Morris, Nick Thomas and Owen Conquer are named among the replacements - were unable to capitalise in the first half when they had a gale force wind behind their backs.
France scored three converted tries to give the defending champions a comfortable 21-6 lead at the break.
France were ruthless in the opening half, scoring every time they had a sniff of the try-line while Wales were forced to make nearly double the amount of tackles in the first half as France kept the ball tight and chiselled away at the Welsh defence.
A yellow card to Isaac Young gave France paved the way for France to expose their extra man advantage with No 8 Mathis Castro snatching the bonus point for their fourth try of the match.
Wales continued to Hussle away and scored a late try through the hard-working Morgan Morse but it wasn’t enough as France marched into the semi-finals while Wales will now play in the 5th-8th place finals.
