How Wire's young stars did for England Academy on home soil

CAI Taylor-Wray looked to have inspired an incredible fightback from England Academy at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Unfortunately, however, it came to nought as visitors France under 19s snatched victory with the game’s final play.

Having come off the bench for the final 20 minutes, the prodigious Warrington Wolves full-back scored a quickfire brace of tries to help England recover an 18-point deficit to level a highly-entertaining encounter at 36-37.

(Image: John Baldwin Photography)

Cai Taylor-Wray's second try levelled the scores at 36-36 (Image: John Baldwin Photography)

And when St Helens half-back George Whitby kicked a drop-goal to take England ahead, it looked as though the comeback was complete but the visitors had other ideas, with winger Baptiste Pourchi gleefully touching down a kick to the corner with the game’s final play to complete a hat-trick and a 40-37 victory.

Taylor-Wray’s Wire teammate Arron Lindop had earlier touched down for a try and set up another on his home ground, with young Wire prop Tom McKinney having also started the game in the front row.

Lining up at right centre, Lindop touched down a close-range kick in similar fashion to the way in which he scored against Wigan Warriors on the very same ground in Super League last month.

(Image: Simon Hall)

Shortly afterwards, he created a try in superb style as he produced an excellent flicked offload with defenders hanging off him to put his winger Marcus Qareqare over the line.

Saints full-back Harry Robertson had touched down for two tries either side of half time as England recovered an 18-8 deficit to level the match at 18-18, but France pulled away thanks to tries from Maxime Rostang, Lenny Marc and Yllan Mongay.

Qareqare's second try raised hopes of an England fightback and when Taylor-Wray ran in twice in as many minutes, it was game on again before the late drama.

France's first-half tries came from Hugo Garrigues and a Pourchi brace.

Warrington prop Tom McKinney was also in the England Academy side (Image: John Baldwin Photography)