French will test young Ireland pretenders

Ireland U20 Six Nations: Ireland’s U20s did all that was expected of them, and maybe more, in beating Italy 47-15 seven days ago but a truer reflection of their collective worth lies in store tonight as they host Fabien Pelous’ French side at Dubarry Park in Athlone (7.05pm).

Four of the visitors’ number have played Top 14 already with Toulouse while Brive’s Fabien Sanconnie, Bordeaux’s Lucas Blanc and Castres’ Antoine Dupont are others who know what it is to sample the delights of their country’s top flight.

Ireland’s ambassadors at this age grade have little if no experience of such heightened surrounds. Apart from Garry Ringrose, that is, the highly-touted UCD and Leinster centre who was parachuted in to Joe Schmidt’s Ireland camp last year to cover for injuries.

“It was a great experience to get called in,” he said. “There was a round of Pro12 games on that week so it wouldn’t have been fair to call on anyone from the provinces’ teams and I was just lucky enough to get the chance to go in.

“I just kept my head down and my eyes open and picked up everything I could. It was great to be rubbing shoulders with guys like that for five days and I’m really just trying to build on everything that happened last year.”

Ringrose is part of a back line brimming with class with scrum-half and captain Nick McCarthy and out-half Ross Byrne — both of them his teammates with the college and province — responsible for keeping their hands on the tiller. Ireland ultimately ran out comfortable winners in horrendous conditions last week but on a scoreline that belied Italy’s fight, given the hosts touched down with the opening score and trailed just 21-15 approaching the half.

“A lot of credit has to go to our pack because they were involved in a tough game and the seven tries on the scoreboard doesn’t really add up to how difficult it was,” said Ringrose.

“The set piece was brilliant. It really opened up space for us and they scored some good forwards’ tries themselves. I know they were happy with that.”

The pack’s performance on muddy underfoot conditions bodes well on an Athlone pitch prone to heaviness and it will be interesting to see how new coach Nigel Carolan’s ‘heads up’ approach fares against one of the competition’s heavyweights.

IRELAND (U20s v France): B Dardis (UCD/Leinster); J Owens (QUB/Ulster), G Ringrose (UCD/Leinster), S Arnold (Ballynahinch/Ulster), S Fitzgerald (Shannon/Munster); R Byrne (UCD/Leinster), N McCarthy (UCD/Leinster); J Loughman (UCD/Leinster), Z McCall (QUB/Ulster), O Heffernan (Terenure/Leinster); D O’Connor (St Mary’s/Leinster), A Thompson (QUB/Ulster); J Murphy (UCD/Leinster), R Moloney (Buccaneers/Connacht), L Dow (QUB/Ulster).

France: T Ramos; A Bonneval, E Roudil, F Fontaine, L Blanc; L Meret, Meric ; R Neti, Marchand, M Simutoga; T Labouteley, C Cazaeux; S Macalou, L Bachelier, F Sanconnie.