WORCESTER Warriors’ Matt Kvesic scored two tries as England Under 20s got their Six Nations campaign off to the perfect start.

They secured an impressive 26-20 victory against Wales at the Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli as Rob Hunter’s men looked strong throughout.

A converted Edward Higgardy try put Wales ahead early on but England made it 7-5 with Northampton wing Jamie Elliott’s effort.

Wales extended their lead through the boot of Matthew Morgan on 23 minutes.

However, England’s second try eventually came from Kvesic, touching down after a strong burst forward from Leicester’s George Ford, who added the conversion.

England maintained their pressure and scored again soon after, courtesy of captain Alex Gray of Newcastle with Ford converting to put them 19-10 ahead.

Moments later, England got their fourth try. The impressive Kvesic jumped and caught an England restart before showing a quick turn of pace to score.

A late penalty for Wales brought them back to within 13 points at half-time.

A try from Ben Thomas brought Wales within a converted try of the lead in the second period but England, who also included Worcester’s Andy Short on the wing, held on.

Kvesic said: “It doesn’t get much better than that. If someone had offered me two tries and a win, I would have bitten their hand off.

“I’m not going to take any of the credit though. Every single one of my team-mates put a shift in and we all pulled together to get the win I think we deserved.

“They came out all guns blazing but we stood firm and held out for the win. To do that in Wales, you can’t ask for much more.

“We seemed to spend most of the first-half attacking and most of the second defending.

“It was nothing to do with complacency. I just think the crowd really got behind them and Wales played well and ran the ball smartly.

“Whether we had won by 60 points or six, we need to take a look at how we played because we know there is room for improvement.

“We’ve got next week to push on and pick it up. We’ll take what we can from this and build on the positives as well as the negatives.”

Meanwhile, England Saxons’ six-match winning run was halted in Belfast when they went down 20-11 to Ireland ‘A’.

Worcester’s Danielle Waterman was among the try-scorers as England women won 19-0 against Wales at Cross Keys.

Club-mate Katherine Merchant and Rochelle Clark also started, while Heather Fisher was a replacement.