Ireland U20 - 21 England U20 - 36:The best the Ireland under-20s can hope for is fifth place after Allen Clarke's Six Nations champions were outmuscled by England in the Junior World Championships in Rosario, Argentina.
The opening quarter of an hour littered with poor handling errors as England’s Tom Homer and Ireland’s James McKinney exchanged two penalties each.
England were powerful and dangerous out wide early on, when Ireland wing Simon Zebo intercepted try-scoring pass from Andy Forsyth.
When the Irish pack failed to retreat following Noel Reid’s clearing kick, England opted for the scrum and blindside Jamie Gibson went through the tackle of Dominic Ryan and powered over.
Homer converted and extended his side’s lead with a penalty, but Ireland finally found some room in midfield as Zebo came off his wing on the ten, seared through a gap, and through Homer, before powering to five metres short of the line.
He possibly should have passed, the English covering defence did a fine job of slowing the ball down and Brendan Macken knocked on in midfield giving England a chance to clear.
It proved there was room to manoeuvre in the backline and they finally found a way through on the cusp of half time from a scrum deep in English territory.
McKinney moved the ball to Macken who gave it to Zebo and looped to find Conway on the wing and he added to his impressive tally against England in the corner.
England went close before the break, with Forsyth knocking on on the line and Ireland went in 16-11 down.
Homer and McKinney again exchanged kicks, but Ireland couldn’t contain the English threat as they exerted pressure through the phases before substitute Freddie Burns stepped inside the cover to score and Homer converted again.
The latter added a penalty to make the difference more than three scores before Burns ran in an intercept from David McSharry's pass.
Eoin Griffin pulled a late consolation back for Ireland.
Argentina stand in their way on Sunday after the hosts suffered their second defeat of their Pool B campaign, this time to France.