Annett’s world class attitude

IRELAND U20s captain Niall Annett is in bullish mood ahead of this year’s IRB Junior World Championship, insisting his side can claim the title.

The tournament gets underway tomorrow, with Ireland opening their campaign against Six Nations Grand Slam champions England in Treviso.

Mike Ruddock’s side face South Africa at the same venue on Tuesday before travelling to Rovigo on Saturday week to tackle Scotland.

It is a daunting fixture list for an Ireland side that finished fourth in this year’s Six Nations, during which they suffered a resounding 46-15 defeat to the English in Athlone.

However, Annett was in confident form last night as he counted down to the opening clash. “The target is to win the tournament,” the Ulster hooker said. “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe we could.”

The importance of tomorrow’s meeting with England cannot be overstated. Ireland went into last year’s Junior World Championship in Argentina on a high after winning the Six Nations three months previously.

However, they were beaten by France in their tournament opener and never truly recovered, suffering defeats to England and hosts Argentina as they finished bottom of their pool. They ended up ninth overall after wins over Samoa and Scotland but that was little consolation for a group with such high expectations.

Annett is one of the eight players in this squad who featured in Argentina last year and, consequently, is well aware of the need for a good start. “The first game can decide the rest of your tournament,” he agreed. “We have huge respect for the English and we know it’s going to be a tough game. They’ll be hoping it’ll be similar (to the Six Nations game in Athlone). But we didn’t play much rugby that day so we’ll hopefully play quite differently. I think it’ll be a cracker to watch.”

While Annett’s primary focus as captain is on the collective, he acknowledges that there are obvious individual goals for every player in the Irish squad.

Rhys Ruddock skippered the U20s last summer and has since been capped at senior level. Annett admits he and his colleagues take great inspiration from the success their former captain has enjoyed.

“This tournament is a springboard for players to make the jump into professional rugby, at club or international level.

“Rhys did brilliantly. I won’t be holding my breath about doing exactly what he did but it just shows you that it’s a possibility. You know that if you play well, you get the rewards.”