WALES went from an agonising defeat to New Zealand to a 71-12 hammering at the hands of the Baby Blacks in the space of five days at the World Rugby U20 Championship.

A quirk of the tournament meant that the Six Nations winners were given a swift chance for revenge after being beaten 18-17 by a last-minute penalty in Salford last Wednesday.

However, such hopes were dashed before last year's champions had even worked up a sweat at Manchester City Academy Stadium.

They scored four tries in the opening 11 minutes and added another score for a 35-5 lead at the break, a hefty advantage that could easily have been even bigger were it not for one disallowed try and two botched golden opportunities.

It was one-way traffic and more scores continued after the break in a rather embarrassing mismatch that should serve as a warning to those who called for the youngsters to be parachuted into professional rugby after their Grand Slam exploits.

Wales were second best in all facets of the game bar the scrum and must now raise themselves to end what has been a disappointing tournament on a high in the seventh-place fixture on Saturday.

After playing some lovely rugby in the Six Nations they have endured defeats to the Irish and New Zealand twice while they only just sneaked past Georgia 10-9.

And the manner of the loss to the Baby Blacks will have hurt their pride as it took the New Zealanders less than six minutes to better their 18-point tally from last week with three incredibly cheap scores.

Wing Jonah Lowe exploited a missed tackle by tighthead Dillon Lewis to race over from quick lineout ball after just 41 seconds, lock Hamish Dalzell charged down Dan Jones' clearance kick to go over then wing Caleb Makene went over from a cross-kick.

Jordie Barrett converted all three tries and things got even worse with another shocker, full-back Shaun Stevenson going over after Ospreys wing Tom Williams allowed a chip to bounce.

Wales got on the scoreboard when full-back Joe Gage finished off down the left after the pack had hammered at the line but the Kiwis scored another through number eight Hapakuki Moala Liava'a, who dotted down from close range.

Barrett added his fifth conversion for 35-5 and the southern hemisphere side could even have passed the half-century by the break, going close twice and having a score chalked off by the TMO.

In 2011 Wales had famously been thrashed 92-0 by New Zealand and a repeat looked distinctly possible when they picked up where they had left off after the restart, hooker Leni Apisai going over for a try that Barrett improved for 42-5.

Wales had not only conceded early but lost Dragons wing Jared Rosser to a yellow card for a tip tackle in the build-up and were still down to 14 when Makene raced over for his second after one of many handling mistakes was ruthlessly exploited.

Another try from a charge down saw lock Quinten Strange get on the scoresheet with the eighth effort, Stevenson failing to follow Barrett's excellence from the tee to ensure it was 'only' 54-5 approaching the hour.

Wales got another score through Dragons number eight Harri Keddie, who ran a nice supporting line to go over from flanker Shaun Evans' neat offload.

However, that merely stung New Zealand into striking again through Stevenson after another cheap turnover and some weak tackling and Makene had his hat-trick when he went over for New Zealand's number 10 past a stretched, tired and demoralised defence for 66-12.

Wales hammered at the line for another consolation from the final play but their day was summed up when centre Patelesio Tomkinson intercepted on his line and went the distance.

Wales scorers: tries – J Gage, H Keddie; conversion – J Evans

New Zealand scorers: tries – J Lowe, H Dalzell, C Makene (3), S Stevenson (2), H Moala Liava'a, L Apisai, Q Strange, P Tomkinson; conversions – B Barrett (7), S Perofeta