Ireland stun the ‘Baby’ All Blacks
IRISH coach Nigel Carolan praised his young men for the way they carved out their historic win over New Zealand in a thrilling contest at the Manchester City Academy Stadium.
It’s the first win by an Irish men’s side over New Zealand and sets Carolan’s team up for a right crack at lifting this title.
The final Pool game is against Georgia at 5.30pm on Wednesday.
The Baby Blacks went into this contest as reigning champions but were second best for most of this cracking World Rugby U-20 Championship clash.
‘It’s hard to put words on it,’ said Irish coach Carolan. ‘Earlier in the week to beat the Six Nations, Grand Slam champions, and then to beat the world champions, to do that in one week has been massive for us.
‘The momentum has come off the back of the Wales game. We had enormous confidence and great belief and we are trying to instil that in the lads in the last couple of days.
‘They reflected that in how they performed, they were absolutely superb for 80 minutes,’ said Carolan.
The champions never gave up and cut the gap to four points in the closing stages before No.8 Max Deegan broke from a scrum to score the clinching try.
Ireland had hooker Adam McBurney harshly sinbinned for a deliberate knock-on and New Zealand surged 14-6 in front, with Shaun Stevenson adding to Jordie Barrett’s earlier try.
But Ireland, who settled with a couple of Bill Johnston penalties, hit back and two great lineout drives yielded convert tries for the hugely impressive Greg Jones and − after his chastening return – McBurney to lead 20-14 at the break.
Ireland lost out-half Johnston to a shoulder injury but his replacement Johnny McPhillips kicked three from three, putting them 23-14 in front after 47 minutes with a kick from 40 metres.
New Zealand hit back with Malo Tuitama getting the first of two tries, but Deegan clinched it with his late score in the driving Manchester rain.