IRB Under 21 World Cup: England 16, France 21. Report by Michael Knox

England's hopes of reaching the semi-finals wilted in the heat at Henley on Saturday, as France secured a narrow but deserved victory.

As it turned out, even a convincing victory for the hosts would not have been enough, as the 37-37 draw between Australia and New Zealand at Newbury ensured both southern hemisphere sides a place in the last four.

Indeed, with holders South Africa and Argentina also going through, the cup is sure to stay south of the equator.

It was a disappointing display in front of 2,000 fans by England, who finished fourth out of six in their pool.

Despite having trained together at Heythrop Park for the first two weeks, they still failed to perform as a cohesive unit.

They kicked away too much of their hard-earned possession and only began to perform in the last quarter after the French had taken their foot off the gas.

For such an important match, England seemed strangely lacklustre, although the midsummer sun may have had something to do with it.

England led 6-3 after a scrappy half-hour thanks to two penalties from full back Ed Thrower to one by the french scrum half Cedric Garcia.

When his England counterpart, Clive Stuart-Smith, was yellow-carded for killing the ball, Garcia badly scuffed his penalty in front of the posts, but that led to the first try of the game.

France winger Florian Friitz gathered the ensuing 22 drop-out and fed centre David Marty wide out on the left. After beating one tackle, Marty had a clear run to the corner for a score.

Trailing 8-6 at half-time, England changed their hooker after some poor throw-ins to the line-out, but this move could not shake France, who extended their lead with two more Garcia penalties.

In a tetchy affair, Italian referee Antonio Lombardo awarded three of the four yellow cards against France, and it was while they were down to 14 men, that they conceded a third penalty goal to Thrower.

However, any hopes of an England revival were dashed when, from the home side's most concerted move of the match, fly half Adryan Winnan saw his pass intercepted by French centre Romaine Cabanne, who ran 60 metres under the posts.

With Garcia in the sin-bin, fly half Regis Lespinas added the conversion.

In a belated England rally, an astute cross kick by flanker Ben Woods was gathered by Thrower, who put winger James Bailey over for a try that Thrower converted.

But with news from Newbury, that Australia had recovered from 24-0 down to draw with the All Blacks, the game petered out into an anti-climax.