Australia U20 secured fifth place at the 2025 World Rugby U20 Championship courtesy of an emphatic 68-40 defeat of England in Italy on Saturday.
The Australians piled on ten tries at Stadio Mario Battaglini in Rovigo to record their second-ever win against England at under-20 level, with their only previous victory coming in 2010.
Sid Harvey, standing in as captain for Eamon Doyle, told Stan Sport he took pride in how the team bounced back strongly after a heavy defeat to South Africa in their opening game of the tournament.
"We started pretty slow and you can't really do that in tournament footy. We had to learn pretty quickly after that first game," Harvey said.
"It's a pretty tough loss that first one, to have 70 points put on us. Then to come back and finish fifth, that's really the best possible result we can get.
"We had a really good few weeks of training and some really nice results off the back of it. It feels really good to get those couple of wins at the back end."
Harvey, flanker Aden Ekanayake and inside centre Malakye Enasio all bagged doubles as Australia got some revenge for their earlier pool stage defeat to an England side that arrived in Italy as defending champions.
The points were flowing Australia's way from the outset as prop Edwin Langi scored from a pick-and-go in the 4th minute.
Four minutes later outside centre Dre Pakeho broke clear and offloaded for Ekanayake to score untouched.
The Australian lead was out to 21 points in the 13th minute when an offload from flyhalf Joey Fowler put fullback Harvey in the clear.
Five minutes later England opened their account as hooker Kepueli Tuipulotu scored on the back of a rolling maul, before following up with a spread to the left edge for winger Campbell Ridl to touch down.
Almost immediately from the restart Fowler broke through and found Ekanayake out wide, who flung a 20-metre pass on the inside for Harvey to score his second.
In the 31st minute an end-to-end passage of play was finished off as Fowler regathered his chip over the top and outpaced the final defender to the line.
As half-time approached, Enasio was unlucky to be shown a yellow card for cynical play and from the ensuing tap England flanker Sam Williams touched down, to make the score 35-21 at the break.
Australia got the scoreboard ticking again in the 49th minute as an inside pass from replacement scrumhalf James Martens put winger Cooper Watters into open space.
England replied through prop Vilikesa Sela from close range before Enasio, back from his stint in the bin, reeled in an offload from a hard-running Pakeho to crash over.
Martens was next to join the green and gold party with a dart from the back of the scrum as Australia U20 cracked the half century.
Adding to the game's highlight reel of remarkable tries, in the 61st minute England outside back Will Knight finished off an incisive kick return which went through multiple sets on hands.
Lurking on the right wing with seven minutes left to play Ekanayake grabbed his second try after Pakeho caused more chaos in the English defence.
England scored what looked to be the final try of the game through Reggie Hammick but instead Australia would have the final say as Enasio swept on a loose ball to wrap up the victory for Chris Whitaker's side. Australia U20 68 (Harvey 2, Ekanayake 2, Enasio 2, Edwin Langi, Fowler, Watters, Martens tries; Fowler 7 cons, Fowler 2 cons) def England U20 40 (Tuipulotu, Ridl, Williams, Sela, Knight, Hammick tries; Coen 5 con)
