Peter Malone hoping Ireland have more in the tank

Three wins from three in the bag and yet the sense when it comes to Nigel Carolan’s latest batch of Ireland U20s is that we have yet to witness anything like the best that the group has to offer as they face into this evening’s meeting with Wales in Eirias Park.

One-point wins away to Scotland and Italy were clear enough indicators that improvements would be required ahead of sterner tests and even the five-point defeat of France in Donnybrook two weeks ago was a victory for opportunism as much as consistency.

“We’ve got a bit of momentum is the best way to term it,” said assistant coach Peter Malone. “I don’t think we’d be jumping up and down with our performances against Scotland and Italy. In saying that, we went away from home and scraped wins but without executing everything we would have liked to execute.