England ground out an unconvincing 13-11 victory against Wales at Vichy's Stade Louis Darragon to book a place against Ireland to contest fifth and sixth places on the last day of the IRB Under 21 World Championship.
Prop David Wilson scored in the 74th minute to tie the scores at 11-11 but crucially left fly half Ryan Lamb with a relatively simple conversion chance. Lamb struck the ball sweetly, England went two points up and held on to that lead until the bitter end.
Wales scored early on, Griffiths going over from a well-worked scrum to spark a Welsh attacking frenzy. Mixing up the balance of play, they continually tested England's defensive line and Thomas' penalty after six minutes was just reward.
England had to wait some time before they broke out of their own half and were indebted to Topsy Ojo's pace for the welcome alleviation in pressure. England regrouped upfield and pressured the Welsh into a mistake, from which Flood's penalty narrowed the lead.
As if suddenly spurred into action, England started to spread the ball wide. Cornwell attacked with verve but both sets of forwards closed ranks and the Welsh ultimately held out for an 8-3 half time lead.
The second half saw a notable improvement in England's scrummaging platform, which in turn allowed scrum half Ben Foden greater freedom to probe for openings.
Flood added a second penalty for the English on 54 minutes to close the Welsh lead to 8-6 but Thomas again gave the Welsh breathing space with a superb 40-metre drop goal with 10 minutes of the match to go.
The Welsh sensed perhaps that victory was within their grasp, but with one of the last meaningful attacks of the match Wilson drove over for Mallinder's men, leaving Lamb to break Welsh hearts.
Quotes
John Elliot, England manager: We didn't give a good account of ourselves today, albeit we won. We can play a lot better. We want to finish this tournament on a high.
Matt Cornwell, England captain: We'd already beaten them in the Six Nations and we're pleased to get the result today. We'll do everything we can to finish fifth.
Wayne Hall, Wales manager: I'm disappointed to have lost this match the way that we did. The guys played like heroes but couldn't make the most of their territorial advantage.
Rhys Shellard, Wales captain: It's a match we should have won. We let it go at the end. Now we need to get up for the game against Argentina.