Murphy confident his side can adapt and thrive in World Cup Championship

ADAPTABILITY: Richie Murphy won't let his side get sidetracked by the current weather conditions in Cape Town. 

Whatever about Ireland’s concerns over the rain-hit Paarl Gymnasium pitch, head coach Richie Murphy will not let his Six Nations champions get sidetracked by the conditions when their World Rugby Under-20 Championship pool campaign kicks off against England in South Africa today.

Murphy is confident his battle-hardened Grand Slam-winning squad have the ability to adapt and thrive in tournament he has insisted remained Ireland’s number one target for the season, even as Ireland were sweeping all aside in this year’s U20 Six Nations.

While preparations in Cape Town have been hindered by heavy, waterlogged pitches as the Western Cape’s autumn rains take their toll on the region and only the Ireland kickers got a chance to train at the match venue yesterday with the captain’s runs for the three matches due to be staged at the Paarl venue today all cancelled, Ireland are ready for any eventuality as they wait for the effects this morning’s opening game between Argentina and Italy has on the saturated but now thankfully drying pitch.

Murphy trusts his players to seamlessly adjust according to the conditions presented at kick-off (12:30 Irish time).

“There’s some slight changes in the way we play but we are who we are and we want to be true to the way we’ve played the game until now,” he said. “So we’re not going to go massively away from what we’ve done in the past.

“So, little adaptations probably. You’re probably going to have to kick a little bit more and when we get down to Paarl to have a look… we can make those adjustments pretty easily within our systems.” 

One thing is clear, Ireland will not be leaning on their Six Nations successes.

“We don’t look back, we look forward,” Murphy said. “Probably from the very start of the year our focus was on trying to prepare to get ready for the Junior World Cup and compete at the highest level.

“That’s never really changed. It didn’t change through the Six Nations so we’ve come here, it finally feels like it’s here because we’ve been waiting for it for quite a long time. The players are in good spirits, they’ve settled in well.

“The weather hasn’t been great, it’s about 20 degrees today and much nicer and the guys are in good spirits and they trained this afternoon, sort of our big training of the week and they look like they’re in a good place.” 

Murphy had the luxury of recalling right wing Andrew Osborne of Leinster and Munster academy lock Evan O’Connell following injuries during the Six Nations in the only two changes to the line-up which started the England game at Musgrave Park.

O’Connell’s inclusion has forced a reshuffle in the back five of the Ireland forward pack with his provincial team-mate Brian Gleeson moved to the bench following injury. O’Connell’s selection sees Diarmuid Mangan shift from the second row to blindside flanker as James McNabney moves from six to No.8 to replace Gleeson with Conor O’Tighearnaigh and Ruadhan Quinn retained at lock and openside flanker respectively.

Murphy declared himself delighted to recall both Osborne and O’Connell and of the latter said: “Evan has been in with us most of the time. He missed the last game with a head knock. He started against Scotland so he has much more experience probably than people think even though he’s a year young.

“A big poach threat, obviously a good lineout player, moves well, so it will be very interesting to see how he goes. I’m sure he’s massively excited. He’s probably thinking he might have started on the bench but he’s earned that right to get into the second row and get going.” Ireland will need to get going today in a Pool B also including 2019 winners Australia and Fiji, particularly having after Murphy was informed that only three teams have previously lost a pool game and gone on to win the World U20 crown.

“I wasn’t aware of that but realistically if you want to win it you probably have to win all five games, don’t you? I suppose in this first game you do have a little bit of a luxury that if it doesn’t go well but you pick up a couple of points in it then you might be able to squeeze your way through.

“But our focus is very much not even on winning the Junior World Cup, it’s just trying to get through this English game at the weekend. We’ve very much focused on them.

“We’ll move on, obviously there’s plans in the background that the players don’t really need to know about. There’s plans with the coaches in relation to what we do against Australia and then Fiji. Some of those are results dependent but if you want to win a Junior World Cup you’ve got to have 30 players who are able to play and you’ve got to be brave in some of your selections as well.” 

IRELAND U20: H McErlean (Leinster); A Osborne (Leinster), H Cooney (Leinster), J Devine (Connacht), H Gavin (Connacht); S Prendergast (Leinster), F Gunne (Leinster); G Hadden (Leinster), G McCarthy (Leinster) – captain, P McCarthy (Leinster); E O’Connell (Munster), C O’Tighearnaigh (Leinster); D Mangan (Leinster), R Quinn (Munster), J McNabney (Ulster).

Replacements: M Clein (Munster), G Morris (Leinster), F Barrett (Connacht), C Irvine (Ulster), B Gleeson (Munster), O Cawley (Leinster), M Lynch (Leinster), J Nicholson (Leinster) 

ENGLAND U20: S Harris (Bath); T Elliott (Harlequins), R Ma’asi-White (Sale Sharks) J Woodward (Leicester Tigers), J Jenkins (Bristol Bears); C Slevin (Harlequins), C Bracken (Saracens); A Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks), F Theobald-Thomas (Gloucester), A Fasogbon; H Cuckson (Bath), L Chessum (Leicester Tigers) – captain; F Carnduff (Leicester Tigers), G Fisilau (Exeter Chiefs), C Cunningham-South (Harlequins).

Replacements: N Jibulu (Harlequins), A McArthur (Gloucester), J Halliwell (Bristol Bears), N Michelow (Saracens), T Woodman (Sale Sharks), N Thomas (Sale Sharks), L Johnson (Newcastle Falcons), J Cusick (Leicester Tigers).

Referee: Luc Ramos (France)