England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
England U20s may have won the ultimate prize but Ireland's young conveyor belt of talent shows no sign of grinding to a halt
England U20s may have won the ultimate prize but Ireland's young conveyor belt of talent shows no sign of grinding to a halt
England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
Both teams were soundly beaten in the semi-finals, New Zealand swatted aside 55-31 by French flair while Ireland were depowered 31-20 by a physical England who especially bullied their scrum.
They also confirmed that skipper Evan O’Connell, the nephew of Paul O'Connell who last took the field in the July 4 pool win over Georgia, has been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament through injury.
The Irish were impressive 55-15 opening day winners over Italy last Saturday at DHL Stadium and Willie Faloon has now changed four forwards and three backs for Thursday’s clash with Georgia in Stellenbosch.
Australia felt hard done by in their round two loss to Ireland in Paarl because in the aftermath of their 10-30 defeat, Irish back-rower James McNabney was cited and banned for foul play that happened in the 35th minute that was missed by the officials in real time.
Forwards Max Flynn and Mikey Yarr, along with backs Ruben Moloney and Jake O'Riordan are the new names added to the squad that Richie Murphy guided to within a whisker an another U20s Six Nations title.
The Irish kept alive their hopes of securing a third successive Six Nations age-grade title by scoring a clock-in-the-red try to draw 32-all with title rivals England last Friday at The Rec.