Zac Guildford back on the scoresheet for New Zealand in final © Getty Images

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News: Cruden set to stake All Black claim

Matches: New Zealand Under-20s 44 - 28 England Under-20s

Tournaments/Tours: Junior World Championship

Teams: England | New Zealand | New Zealand Under-20s

New Zealand scored seven tries to retain the under-20s world title on a wet and slippery pitch at Tokyo's Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium by defeating England 44-28.

Three of the tries came in a hectic spell around the half-hour mark when New Zealand took command of the final after England had led 11-5 early on following two penalty goals from Tom Homer and a try by James Gaskell.

England would have led by more if scrum-half Ben Youngs had not lost the ball to Robbie Robinson in sliding for the line in the 11th minute. The same New Zealand player then opened the scoring for his own team by finishing off a break from Winston Stanley.

Stanley helped make his team's second try through an inch perfect pass to Zac Guildford who sprinted in from 40 metres. That score led to New Zealand's best period of the match which brought a penalty from Aaron Cruden and then two tries by the outside-half.

Cruden touched down twice following excellent interchanges between forwards and backs. The burst of points put New Zealand 25-11 ahead which was reduced by three points following a third penalty from Homer for England.

However, England conceded a fourth try immediately after half-time when Cruden made a half break before putting Shaun Treeby clear to touch down under the posts. Carl Fearns pulled a try back for England but tenacious New Zealand defence was always going to make it difficult to pull back another 11 points and Guildford's second try of the game in the 59th minute almost put the match out of reach.

Brayden Mitchell's five-pointer in the 72nd minute made it impossible and Dave Lewis' try in the 78th minute was nothing more than a consolation effort for England.

Mark Mapletoft, the England coach, accepted afterwards that the better team had won but he felt his players had put up a more competitive effort than last year when New Zealand had won the title in Wales.

Mapletoft said: "Overall it was closer than last year and we've certainly made strides in some aspects. They were just too clinical for us to get away with slipping off one on one tackles in defence and giving the ball away in attack. When we gave them cheap yards and a sniff of the line, they were over."

New Zealand: Robbie Robinson (Southland), Nafi Tuitavake (North Harbour), Winston Stanley (Auckland), Shaun Treeby (Wellington), Zac Guildford (Hawke's Bay), Aaron Cruden (Manawatu, captain), Frae Wilson (Wellington), Trent Boswell-Wakefield (Hawke's Bay), Bernie Hall (Canterbury), Brendon O'Connor (Canterbury), Daniel Faleafa (Auckland), Alex Ryan (Southland), Ma'afu Fia (Manawatu), Brayden Mitchell (Southland), Willie Ioane (Manawatu). Replacements: Shae Tamati (Hawke's Bay), Latu Talakai (Waikato), Leighton Price (Hawke's Bay), Elliot Dixon (Canterbury), Tom Taylor (Canterbury), Codey Rei (Taranaki), Ken Pisi (North Harbour).

England: Tom Homer (London Irish), George Lowe (Harlequins), Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby), Luke Eves (Bristol), Charlie Sharples (Gloucester), Rory Clegg (Newcastle Falcons), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs), Jamie George (Saracens), Bob Baker (London Wasps), Graham Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), James Gaskell (Sale Sharks), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie, capt), Carl Fearns (Sale Sharks) Replacements: James Clark (London Irish), Shaun Knight (Gloucester), Dan Williams (Gloucester), Josh Ovens (Bath), Dave Lewis (Gloucester), Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons), Jack Cobden (Leicester Tigers) .

In the other games in Tokyo, Lionel Cronje scored the first and last of South Africa's tries as they defeated Australia 32-5 in the third place play off. Pierre Bernard scored 33 of France's points as they outclassed Wales 68-13 to claim fifth.

Samoa claimed seventh place with a 9-3 victory over Ireland while Scotland survived a late comeback by Tonga to defeat them 28-25 and secure ninth place. Argentina took 11th by beating Fiji 27-10.

Italy's Michele Mortali scored 15 points to help his team secure a 32-22 victory over Canada in the 13th place play-off . Finally, Japan recorded their first victory in this year's tournament in some style, defeating Uruguay 54-17.

Final Standings: 1 New Zealand, 2 England, 3 S Africa, 4, Australia, 5, France, 6, Wales, 7, Samoa, 8 Ireland, 9, Scotland, 10, Tonga, 11, Argentina, 12, Fiji.