Peter Claffey confident Ireland U20s can turn fortunes around against England

Peter Claffey didn’t offer any excuses as he looked ahead to tonight’s meeting of the English and Irish U20s on the 4G pitch at Newcastle’s Kingston Park.

“A pretty disappointing start,” was the Connacht lock’s summation of the opening two rounds of his side’s Six Nations, which has so far delivered a loss at home to Wales and defeat in France. Add in the four defeats racked up after last year’s opening win over Italy, and it makes for six in a row in this tournament for the U20s under Nigel Carolan, and it inevitably raises a familiar debate about the merits of results and performance at this grade.

Feeding players through to the senior provincial and national ranks is the priority, but a string of reversals over two seasons is hard to ignore, even as coach Carolan continues the admirable policy of giving players freedom to express themselves within a general structure.