Ireland U20s have 'point to prove' after disappointment of cancelled game against Australia

SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW: Ireland drew with England during the Six Nations and will be hoping to secure a win and a final spot for a second year in a row. Pic: ©INPHO/SteveHaagSports/Darren Stewart

Ireland are hoping that Tuesday’s cancelled match against Australia will leave them fresher for Sunday’s World Rugby U-20 Championship showdown against England in South Africa.

Head coach Willie Faloon would have hoped to go into this showdown with the side who pipped them by a point to the U-20 Six Nations earlier this year also buoyed by three wins in a row but their final pool game against Australia was cancelled due to the weather, with both sides being awarded two match points.

That guaranteed Ireland safe passage to the semi-finals but after getting out of jail with a Finn Treacy try with the clock deep in the red against Georgia in a 22-16 win, they have done with producing a big display against the Junior Wallabies and head into this semi-final with momentum.

“We thought we had a point to prove, it wasn't our best performance against Georgia so the guys were really up for the game. Obviously we were happy to be in the semi-finals but disappointed not to get the chance to play,” said Faloon after the Australia outcome.

It’s a measure of the task facing Ireland that the other three semi-finalists have collected the title on a dozen of the 13 times it has been held, with Faloon’s charges going into Sunday’s semi-finals as the only country not to have lifted the cup.

South Africa, winners in 2012 with a side which included Handrè Pollard and Steven Kitshoff among a host of future World Cup winners, are the only previous winners not to make the semi-finals this summer.

They were pipped by England in their final pool game on Tuesday when Mark Mapletoft’s side scored a try to seal a 17-12 win with the clock in the red. That was enough to send them into Sunday’s semi-final at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town (3.30pm Irish time, live on RugbyPass.tv) with three straight wins.

The loss of captain Evan O’Connell, a nephew of Paul,  for the remainder of the tournament is a huge blow. It didn’t look good when he arrived at the Athlone Sports Stadium on Tuesday for the Australia game on crutches, and he will also miss the final match next Friday with that ankle injury.

Whether that game next week is Ireland’s second final appearance in a row or a third place play-off — six-time winners New Zealand and France, winners of the last three tournaments, meet in the other semi-final — remains to be seen.

Faloon and his management team of Neil Doak, Ian Keatley and Aaron Dundon have kept faith in the backline they selected for the Aussie game with Sam Berman, scorer of a hat-trick in the 55-15 opening round win over Italy, remaining on the bench as the experienced Hugh Gavin partners Wilhelm de Klerk in the centre.

Ireland have switched the props with Emmet Calvey and Patreece Bell starting with Jaob Boyd and Andrew Sparrow on the bench. James McKillop will partner Billy Corrigan in the second row, with Sean Edogbo coming back into a back row where Munster’s Brian Gleeson will skipper the side.

This will be the tenth meeting in this tournament between the sides with England winning six, Ireland two and there was a 34-34 draw when they met in the opening game in South Africa last year.

England, who drew 32-32 against Ireland in this year’s Six Nations at The Rec,  won the only other semi-final meeting between them with they triumphed 42-15 in New Zealand in 2014, while the only final meeting between them resulted in a 45-12 victory for England at the AJ Bell Stadium in 2016.

Ireland, runners-up last year to France in their only other final appearance, have not beaten England in the tournament since 2019 when Noel McNamara’s side with the likes of Craig Casey, Ben Healy, Ryan Baird, Josh Wycherley and Thomas Ahern were on board triumphed 42-26 in Argentina.

Prior to that their only other win over England came in 2012 in Cape Town when a side coached by Mike Ruddock and which included the likes of Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Tadhg Furlong, Jack Conan and Josh van der Flier, won by 27-12.

IRELAND: B O’Connor; F Treacy, W de Klerk, H Gavin, H McLaughlin; J Murphy, O Coffey; B Howard, D Sheahan, J Boyd; A Spicer, J McKillop; S Edogbo, B Ward, B Gleeson. 

Replacements: S Smyth, E Calvey, P Bell, B Corrigan, L Murphy, T Brophy, S Naughton, S Berman.

ENGLAND: I Jones; B Redshaw, B Waghorn, S Kerr, A Wills; B Coen, O Allan; C Wright, A Fasogbon, J Bailey; J K’poku; F Carnduff ©, H Pollock, N Michelow. 

Replacements: J Isaacs, C Miell, J Halliwell, O Sodeke, K James, L Friday, J Bellamy, T Cousins.