McNamara’s mantra: Failure is never fatal, it’s how you react to it

The Ireland U20s were not long celebrating their remarkable Six Nations Grand Slam before the demands of the rest of the season kicked back in and they had gone their separate ways. One night of celebration with the players and their families at the team hotel in Colwyn Bay after Wales had been beaten 26-17 at Parc Eirias last Friday and it was straight back to Manchester for the return flight to Dublin on Saturday morning while head coach Noel McNamara resumed his planning for the U20 World Championship in Argentina, starting June 4.

“There’s never a huge amount of time to dwell on it really,” McNamara told the Irish Examiner yesterday. “There’s some of them even playing this weekend with their clubs in the AIL, a couple of guys from Ulster went across to Boston as part of the Ulster A squad for the Cara Cup, so it moves on.