Ruddock positive ahead of English opener
The English completed a Grand Slam in this year’s Six Nations by routing their Irish counterparts 46-15 in Athlone and they have, unsurprisingly, named an unchanged line-up for the game at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo.
Ireland, though, have made 11 changes in personnel to the side which capitulated at Dubarry Park, the most notable of which are the return of Leinster winger Andrew Conway and Ulster duo Luke Marshall and Craig Marshall to the back-line.
In addition, Ruddock revealed that two members of Declan Kidney’s senior coaching panel, Les Kiss and Gert Smal, have been working closely with the squad in the run-up to their tournament opener.
“We know we are a quality team now,” Ruddock said. “We have had some good preparation and if we catch England before they get into their groove we think that we can do a bit of damage.
“We are going in a very positive frame of mind: we know that England are favourites; we know they are the champions at the moment in U20 rugby in Europe; we know they have a lot of players who have played Premiership rugby; we know they are a quality team.
“However, this will be a very different Ireland team to the one that played in the Six Nations, so we are certainly not going in there without any chance and we think we have every chance.
“The boys have trained very well, we have had a really good preparation: two warm-up matches which we didn’t have before last year’s tournament so we are really positive about our preparations and really ready to get stuck into them.
“We have prepared well with senior Ireland coaches Les Kiss and Gert Smal helping out and we are as ready as we can ever be for a game of this magnitude.”
England will be led by highly-rated Newcastle Falcons number 8 Alex Gray, who scored five tries during this year’s Six Nations, and the strength of their squad is underlined by the fact that head coach Rob Hunter has been able to leave Saracens fly-half Owen Farrell on the bench, meaning Leicester’s George Ford continues at out half.
However, Hunter is not underestimating the threat posed by Ireland.
“They were missing a few players last time we played them and they’re back now,” he said.
“It’s a different game, a different environment and different things are at stake.
“We’ve got to focus on ourselves and our own game, we’ll give them the upmost respect but ultimately it’s about us and how we play on the day.
“This is the opening game for us and it doesn’t get much tougher, but we want to start this competition as we mean to go on and that means playing well and doing all we can to getting the win.”
Ireland: C Gilroy (Ulster); A Conway (Leinster), B Macken (Leinster), L Marshall (Ulster), A Boyle (Leinster); P Jackson (Ulster), K Marmion (Exile); J Tracy (Leinster), N Annett (Ulster; capt), T Furlong (Leinster); M Kearney (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster); J Murphy (Leinster), D Gallagher (Ulster), E McKeon (Connacht).
Replacements: D Doyle (Leinster), C Carey (Ulster), D Qualter (Connacht), S Buckley (Munster), P du Toit (Leinster), J McKinney (Ulster), JJ Hanrahan (Munster).
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