McCarthy: Ireland U20s went back to the drawing board

Ireland coach Neil Doak has named his side for Sunday’s opening game in the 2025 World Rugby U20 Championship against Georgia 

Ireland Men's U20 Captain Éanna McCarthy. Pic: Ryan Byrne, Inpho

Ireland captain Éanna McCarthy said they went back to the drawing board after finishing bottom of this year’s Six Nations and he’s confident they have re-aligned themselves to do well at the World Rugby U20 Championship which kicks off on Sunday when they take on Georgia in Calvisano (5pm Irish time).

The Connacht flanker said the squad have settled in well at their base near Lake Garda and have been acclimatising to the 30 degree heat in the past few days and are ready to hit the ground running in a group which will also include ties with hosts Italy and New Zealand.

McCarthy said they obviously were not happy with their results from the Six Nations where their only win came against Scotland.

“We went kind of back to the drawing board after it and I suppose we kind of saw where we were falling down in areas and we've worked on them big time so, yeah, we're feeling happy enough going into now.

“I think we had a lot of green entries during the Six Nations that we couldn't convert so when we did go back to the drawing board after it we kind of put our finger on that and we've been practising a good bit around breakdown habits and kind of banker balls with our pack,” said the Cork native who is heading into his second year in the Connacht academy.

McCarthy has not played against Georgia in any other grade but is in no doubt about the task they face against a country participating in this competition for the seventh year in succession.

“Georgia definitely is going to be a massive battle up front,” added McCarthy. “I think the forward pack will have to step up big time because they have big men coming against us so that's our first hope to beat them and get a good start to the work.” Ireland, with Keith Wood’s son Tom starting at out-half where he will be partnered by Ulster’s Clark Logan, have appeared in all 14 U20 tournaments so far, twice reaching the final.

They finished seventh and eighth when the tournament was previously held in Italy and were beaten semi-finalists last year in South Africa, having been runners-up to France the previous year.

Head coach Neil Doak is boosted by the return of prop Alex Usanov who missed the Six Nations through injury and the Clontarf RFC player is named on a strong bench as Ireland bid for a winning start against a Georgia side they have beaten in three of their four previous meetings at the tournament.

Ireland will play Italy in Viadana next Wednesday and conconclude the group phase with a clash against New Zealand back in Calvisano.

IRELAND U20: C Molony (Leinster), P Farrell (Leinster), C Mangan (Leinster), E Smyth (Munster), D Moloney (Leinster), T Wood (Munster), C Logan (Ulster); B Bohan (Connacht), H Walker (Ulster), A Mullan (Leinster), M Ronan (Leinster), B Corrigan (Leinster), M Foy (Munster), É McCarthy (Connacht, captain), L Murphy (Munster) 

Replacements: M Yarr (Leinster), A Usanov (Leinster), T McAllister (Ulster), C Kennelly (Munster), B Power (Connacht), W Wootton (Sale Sharks/IQ Rugby), S Wisniewski (Leinster), D Green (Ulster)