Title success would be a real bonus for U20s, says McNamara
THE Ireland U20s will have one eye on events in Wales this evening as they look for a favour in their quest to be crowned U20 Six Nations champions.
Ireland must beat England and deny them a bonus point, while at the same time hoping for a Welsh win over France.
It’s a tall order, particularly against a good England team in their own back yard, but stranger things have happened.
Head coach Noel McNamara said: “It’s always a challenge. There is still an opportunity for the boys, if results go their way, to win it. Our focus is on beating England and anything that happens after that, happens after that.
“There are inconsistencies within the game; on one hand we have lost a half in every game that we have played so that’s something for us to be better at.
“We feel there has been improvement through the Six Nations, but still inconsistencies.”
Ireland will have to save their best performance for last if they are to pull off what would be a remarkable achievement, especially already having lost two games earlier in the campaign.
They need a big performance from their pack, but in players like Jack Aungier and Jack O’Sullivan they have the quality.
Ireland can ill-afford any sloppy errors because England will not hesitate in punishing them.
They are capable of causing England plenty of problems in attack, but their major issue remains in defence. If Ireland can tighten that up, it will give them a fighting chance.
IRELAND U20s: M Silvester; J Hume, T O’Brien (capt), A Curtis, A Kernohan; H Byrne, H O’Sullivan; J Duggan, E Clarke, J Aungier; M Dalton, J Dunne; J Dunleavy, M Agnew, J O’Sullivan. Reps: D Barron, J French, T O’Toole, R Coffey, S Masterson, J Stewart, C Dean, S O’Brien.
SO callow are some of the squad that Joe Schmidt has turned into Six Nations champions that, with just 25 caps to his name, Tadhg Furlong already seems like one of the older heads.
While that’s what being a Lions Test tighthead will no doubt do to your profile, just like the young guns Jacob Stockdale, Garry Ringrose, James Ryan et al, tomorrow’s Grand Slam decider against England (2.45pm kick-off) will be the Wexford man’s first Six Nations game at Twickenham.
He had already made his Ireland bow before this fixture two years ago, but the duty of anchoring the Ireland scrum that day went to Mike Ross and then Nathan White as Eddie Jones’ side ran out 21-10 winners en route to a Grand Slam of their own.
Unlike the rest of Ireland’s new breed, Furlong does have experience of playing on the cabbage patch though, having won his second cap in a World Cup warm-up in 2015, and even with the biggest of prizes on offer tomorrow afternoon, the 25-year-old doesn’t believe the nerves this weekend will compare to butterflies in his stomach back then.
“I came off the bench preWorld Cup to play loosehead which was an interesting experience, with Mike Ross at tighthead, me at loosehead and Nathan White at No.6 packing down behind me,” he recalled with a laugh. “It was a bit of a weird one really. “Probably looking back, I don’t think I was ever as nervous before a game of rugby as I was before that one. It was only my second cap. I had learned loosehead in the space of a week, a crash course from Cian Healy, pushing my hips into walls and stuff, weird scrummaging drills.
“Also then at tighthead you know your role and it doesn’t change a massive amount around the pitch, but you are in a different position in the lineout, where you go and different phases, it changes completely.
“I remember just racking my brain, looking at my notes, thinking over and over again trying to get it right.”
England’s loosehead that day, Kieran Brookes, is one man who could be forgiven for failing to predict that the young man struggling with his bind in the opposing scrum would soon be one of the best No.3s in world rugby.
“It’s actually a funny story,” Furlong said of his brief foray across the front-row. “So I was scrummaging loosehead, and I actually bound over the tighthead. So usually the loosehead binds under and the tighthead binds over the loosehead’s bind then. But I bound over the tighthead’s bind and (Brookes) said, ‘Mate, you know you’re playing Ireland Wales England France Scotland Italy 4 4 0 013667 19 4 2 0 2 105 70 11 4 2 0 2 8768 10 4 2 0 2 95 80 10 4 2 0 2 72 101 8 4 0 0 4 65 174 0
Tomorrow’s fixtures: Italy v Scotland (12.30pm); England v Ireland (2.45pm); Wales v France (5.00pm)
loosehead, yeah?’
“I just said, ‘Oh yeah’, so we reset that one and went again.”
Changed times for Ireland,