The Australian Under-20 rugby team are out of title contention at the IRB junior world championship in Vannes, France after narrowly failing to snatch a historic victory over New Zealand.

Four-time champions New Zealand have lost only twice in history at the tournament, now in its sixth edition, but the Australians went desperately close to adding a third defeat as they rallied from 0-14 down and controlled the second half before losing 14-10.

It was a vastly improved effort from Australia following their listless and costly first up loss to Ireland.

But they cannot advance to the semi-finals, regardless of the outcome in their final pool match against Fiji.

Captain Curtis Browning was bitterly disappointed but praised his team who pulled the margin back to 14-10 with 20 minutes to go and made almost all the play until fulltime against a desperate New Zealand defence.

“I am so proud of them,” Browning said.

“They stuck in right to the end and to keep them with no points in the second half is a real testament to the boys and it put a lot of pride back in the jersey, even though we didn’t get the win.

“It is obviously disappointing to have back-to-back losses in a tournament like this. The boys really stuck in and you can’t fault their effort – it was there.

“We talked about being ruthless and that is what we did today, even if the result wasn’t there.”

Replacement back Luke Burton scored Australia’s only try midway through the second half after sustained pressure from his forwards.