England U20 22 South Africa U20 27

The appearance of four Harlequins players off the bench could not prevent England's youngsters from suffering defeat in the IRB Junior World Championship third-place play-off in Rosario.

Rob Buchanan, Charlie Matthews, Rory Clegg and Sam Smith were helpless to stop South Africa second-half rampage, as Clegg's late penalty was the only score England managed after the break.

The match had started well, as Marcus Watson, Freddie Burns and Quins prop Joe Marler scored tries in the opening half-hour.

England led 19-12 at half-time as they dominated the set pieces and attacked sharply down the right.

But it was a different story after the break, as South Africa picked up the tempo and took advantage of some defensive uncertainty to strike twice in 15 minutes Full-back Patrick Lambie went in under the posts and Sithole squeezed into the corner for his second, with Lambie supplying a superb touchline conversion.

England lost Burns to a calf injury midway through the half but reshuffled their backline and stepped up again with a series of attacks.

They were halted only by two final passes going astray before Clegg's penalty pulled them back to within two points going into the last 10 minutes.

Lambie, though, added a straightforward three points five minutes from time, leaving England needing to claim their fourth try in the closing stages.

Twice, they broke through the middle only to lose the ball in contact and were still attacking with the final play when Marler ran out of room on the left within 10m of the line.

England U20: Tom Homer (London Irish); Christian Wade (London Wasps), Jonny May (Gloucester), Tom Casson (Harlequins); Marcus Watson (London Irish), Freddie Burns (Gloucester), Sam Harrison (Leicester Tigers); Joe Marler (Harlequins), Jamie George (Saracens), Mako Vunipola (Bristol), Calum Green (Leicester Tigers), George Kruis (Saracens), Will Welch (Newcastle Falcons), Jacob Rowan (Leeds Carnegie, captain), Jamie Gibson (London Irish)

Replacements: Rob Buchanan (Harlequins) for George 56, Shaun Knight (Gloucester) for Vunipola 45, Charlie Matthews (Harlequins) for Kruis 51, Alex Gray (Newcastle Falcons) for Welch 65, Charlie Davies (Stade Francais) for Harrison 51, Rory Clegg (Harlequins) for Casson 53, Sam Smith (Harlequins) for Burns 60.