Junior Wallabies survive scare in world champs thriller

The Junior Wallabies overcame a major scare to beat Fiji 46-37 in a rollercoaster opening to their under-20 world championship campaign on Sunday (AEST).

Australia trailed by eight points with 15 minutes to play in Stellenbosch – and were down to 14 men following a red card to prop Marley Pearce.

But late tries to fullback Mason Gordon - the younger brother of new Wallabies playmaker Carter – and a second to flying winger Darby Lancaster gave Nathan Grey’s side a winning start at Danie Craven Stadium.

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“It was a fantastic game of footy, lots of tries scored,” Grey said.

“We’re very happy that we’re able to get away with the win and stuck to our playing style and we were able to get over the line.”

Liam Bowron, Nick Bloomfield, Ronan Leahy and man of the match David Vaihu were Australia’s other try-scorers.

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The Junior Wallabies will now meet Ireland on Thursday (7pm AEST).

Australia sits on top of Pool B after Ireland and England played out a thrilling 34-34 draw.

”Consistently around our restarts, that’s one part of the game where we sort of let ourselves down,” Grey said.

“But the pleasing thing about that was we improved throughout the game. Our attacking ruck was pretty strong. Our ball carries were sometimes too good and we’ve got to speed up our support to be able to make sure we don’t turn those balls over and maintain our playing style.

“When we do that we can put teams under pressure and score points.”

Argentina, France, New Zealand and South Africa were the other winners from the opening day of the tournament.

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