Gregor Gillanders and Ben Youngs collected silver medals at the IRB Junior World Championship after England Under-20s were beaten 38-3 by New Zealand in the final on Sunday.

Nigel Redman’s side had out-performed every previous junior England team by reaching a first Junior World Championship final, winning all nine games this season and completing a Six Nations Grand Slam in the process.

But New Zealand, the No1 seeds, weathered the early pressure then kept the scoreboard ticking over with penalties before grabbing tries from Kade Poki, Jackson Willison, Andre Taylor and Ryan Crotty.

England replied with Alex Goode’s first-half penalty and, despite some bright spells, they could not put any more points on the board.

Leicester Tigers second row Gillanders, scorer of a try against the Classic All Blacks at Welford Road at the end of last season, started in the England pack before being replaced in the second half, while scrum-half Youngs was used as a 45th-minute replacement.

England coach Redman takes up a new role with the RFU after the Championship and paid tribute to the players who had taken England to their first-ever final.

"We’re very disappointed but this season and this tournament has been awesome for us and we’ve achieved a lot," said Redman.

"We’ve won a Grand Slam and a Triple Crown, beaten the number three seeds Australia and the number two seeds South Africa, reached a world final for the first time and scored more than 40 tries in doing so. All in all, it’s been a great season."

Premier Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty also congratulated England's squad.

"On behalf of the Guinness Premiership clubs, I would like to congratulate the England team on their fantastic achievement in reaching the final,” he said.

“These are the future stars of the Guinness Premiership. Their defeat of South Africa in the semi-final will live long in the memory and their performance in the final and in the tournament overall will have made their respective clubs very proud.

“Several players already have experience in the Guinness Premiership and I hope we will see more of this talented group make their debuts in the coming season. The future of English rugby looks extremely bright."

England U20: Noah Cato (Saracens); Mark Odejobi (London Wasps), Luke Eves (Bristol Rugby), Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins), Miles Benjamin (Worcester Warriors); Alex Goode (Saracens), Joe Simpson (London Wasps); Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby), Joe Gray (Northampton Saints), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Ben Thomas (Saracens), Gregor Gillanders (Leicester Tigers), Jon Fisher (London Irish), Calum Clark (Leeds Carnegie), Hugo Ellis (London Wasps, captain).
Replacements: Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers) for Simpson 45, Billy Moss (Bath Rugby) for Corbisiero 55, Scott Hobson (Cornish Pirates) for Gillanders 55, Rob Miller (Newcastle Falcons) for Eves 61, Matthew Cox (Worcester Warriors) for Ellis 65, Scott Freer (Leeds Carnegie) for Gray 70, Seb Stegmann (Harlequins) for Odejobi 77.

New Zealand: Trent Renata; Kade Poki, Jackson Willison, Ryan Crotty, Zac Guildford; Daniel Kirkpatrick, Grayson Hart; Paea Fa’anunu, Ash Dixon, Ben Afeaki, Chris Smith (captain), Sam Whitelock, Peter Saili, Luke Braid, Nasi Manu.
Replacements: Aaron Smith for Hart 58, Sean Maitland for Renata 60, Josh Townsend for Whitelock 66, Rodney Ah You for Fa’anunu, Hugh Reed for Saili 72, Quentin MacDonald for Dixon 73, Andre Taylor for Poki.