Ireland can rise to challeng

Ireland begin their quest for Junior World Cup glory in Auckland on Monday, facing an onerous task against Six Nations champions France (QBE Stadium, 6.35am, Irish time, TG4).

The French and Welsh defeated Mike Ruddock’s men during the spring, and both are in Ireland’s group in New Zealand, as are Fiji. Rather than bemoan bad fortune, Ruddock views the pairings as a perfect opportunity to atone for their disappointments earlier in the season.

“We put ourselves in a position to win that game in France. We missed a crucial penalty with eight minutes to go and that could have changed the complexion of the game,” he said. “We have taken on board the necessity to work on certain aspects of our game and the national group of coaches, Joe [Schmidt], Les [Kiss] and Greg [Feek] have come in and spent a bit of time working on improvements.