England, winners of the junior grand slam in March, believe they have a team capable of making significant progress in the International Rugby Board's under-20 tournament in Wales this month. After two pool C wins in which they have aggregated over 100 points, the record bears them out but they will have to play far better than they did in Newport tonight when they beat Canada 60-18.

In their opening game against Fiji, England scored 41 first-half points then allowed their opponents to take the inititiative after the break. The same happened here, when they led Canada 48-3 at the end of the first half but conceded two tries in the final quarter while adding only two more of their own. If they are to beat Australia on Saturday and reach the semi-finals, they cannot afford such generosity.

It is hard to judge players of this age by the same standards as the Guinness Premiership, particularly when this squad includes players like Charlie Sharples, Rob Miller and Courtney Lawes who will be back again next season. But these are the standards they must match if they are to secure senior contracts, and if they are to beat the hard nuts from the southern hemisphere in this tournament.

"They have quality players with Super 14 experience but we're ready to do the job we feel we need to do," Hugo Ellis, the England captain, said after scoring one of his side's nine tries. But they will have to tidy up basic aspects of their game: Nigel Redman, the coach, was unhappy with the number of penalties conceded at the breakdown against Fiji and the adverse count of 12-6 against Canada would have disappointed him.

Restarts were insecure and England threw far too many speculative passes. Credit must go to Canada for carrying the contest to England, even though they knew they would not win; they compensated for a lack of strength and physique with typical enthusiasm in the tackle, and took advantage of a major second-half reshuffle by England which left them with four locks in the pack. They paid the penalty when Sean White nipped round the blind side of a scrum for Canada's first try.

There was, though, some sparkling running in the first half which brought five tries in a 13-minute period. Ben Youngs revelled in the space left for him around rucks and mauls, sending Rob Miller in for one try before scoring two himself. Alex Tait showed much of the flair of his older brother, Mathew, most notably breaking from his own line and making all the running before Ellis finished from 30 metres.

Scorers: England under-20: Tries: Fisher (4min), Cox (15), Odejobi (27), Miller (31), Youngs 2 (34, 55), Eves (36), Ellis (40), Cato (79). Conversions: Miller 6. Penalty goal: Miller (18). Canada under-20: Tries: White (74), de Goede (80+1). Conversion: Hirayama. Penalty goals: Hirayama (26, 52).

Scoring sequence (England under-20 first): 7-0, 14-0, 17-0, 17-3, 22-3, 29-3, 36-3, 41-3, 48-3 (half-time), 48-6, 53-6, 53-11, 60-11, 60-18

England under-20: N Cato (Saracens); M Odejobi (London Wasps; rep: M Benjamin, Worcester, 52), L Eves (Bristol), A Tait (Newcastle Falcons), C Sharples (Gloucester); R Miller (Newcastle Falcons), B Youngs (Leicester; rep: J Simpson, London Wasps, 65); W Moss (Bath), J Gray (Northampton; rep: J Clark, London Irish, 54), S Freer (Leeds Carnegie; rep: A Corbisiero, London Irish, 54), C Lawes (Northampton), G Gillanders (Leicester), J Fisher (London Irish; rep: S Hobson, Cornish Pirates, 41), M Cox (Worcester), H Ellis (London Wasps; rep: B Thomas, Saracens, 41)).

Canada under-20: H Jones; J Wilson-Ross, M Scholz (rep: C Trainor, 47), T Dalziel (rep: M Evans, 19-26), K Buckley; N Hirayama, J Mackenzie (rep: S White, 54); A Tiedemann (rep: R Ward, 47), R Hamilton, M Perizzolo, M Berg, S Robertson (rep: A Wodzicki, 54), T de Goede, K Selby (rep: I Manly, 38), S Pearson.

Referee: T Hirabayashi (Japan).