Good habits clicking for Ireland U20s as they chase Triple Crown

After a heavy opening round defeat to France, the Ireland U20s have turned their fortunes around with wins against Italy and England

MAINTAINING STANDARDS: Christopher Barrett: "It goes back to that quote, ‘excellence is a habit’. We want to keep that going and don't let it drop." Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

After an excellent win over England in Bath in round three, the Ireland Under-20s continue their bid for a Six Nations Triple Crown on familiar ground in Cork on Saturday (19:45) when they a face a Wales side equally energised by victory last time out.

Irish head coach Andrew Browne has made two changes from the side which came from 14-7 down at half-time to register a 31-21 bonus-point success at The Rec on February 20, naming Dylan McNiece at lock as UCD and Leinster team-mate Donnacha McGuire moves to the bench while Ben Blaney is promoted from the bench top openside flanker as Billy Hayes moves in the opposite direction.

Beating the English away from home completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes following a 50-21 opening-round thumping by defending champions France in Perpignan a fortnight earlier. Much like Andy Farrell’s senior Ireland side, the U20s gathered much-needed momentum in round two with a 30-27 victory over Italy at Cork’s Virgin Media Park and their win in England a week later marked a distinct turn for the positive as Browne’s squad finally clicked on the field to lay down a marker for the rest of the campaign.

That is the way Ireland number nine Christopher Barrett saw it. The 2025 Munster Senior Schools Cup winner with CBC Cork told the Irish Examiner: “I suppose the first round, like we don't really think it was like fully us and I suppose there could have been nerves and everything just, like of course going to Six Nations, all the cameras, it's a big change for a lot of lads who hadn't, who hadn't been there before, including myself.

“I was pretty nervous before that game but I suppose that kind of got us rolling and our big motto in camp is ‘excellence is a habit’ and it's what we repeatedly do.

“So we knew that, we knew how good we are, we knew what we could do and I suppose it was just to keep going. Like, obviously the defeat was pretty bad and the heads were kind of hard to keep up but we knew with all our trainings, we knew what we could do ourselves and so it was the momentum that we got in Italy really carried us on into the England match.

“I suppose that was just a really good thing and all our habits kind of started clicking again and what we were working on in training just kind of flowed out into the game.” 

Two home games remain, with Scotland visiting Leeside on Sunday week to close out Ireland’s campaign but having taken a big step forward, Barrett recognises the need to kick on again against a Welsh side which beat the Scots in round three with a 31-21 victory at Cardiff Arms Park.

“That's our big thing,” the UCC scrum-half said. “We don't want to get complacent and with two wins, it’s easy to say home games now, it's going to be a lot easier, but Wales put it up to France, had a hell of a game against them, it was so close, and then they beat Scotland, and we know they're going to come out exactly the same for us and they're going to want revenge, they're going to want to prove themselves as well.

“So it goes back to that quote, ‘excellence is a habit’. We want to keep that going and don't let it drop.” 

Barrett continues his half-back partnership with fellow Munster man Tom Wood, the province’s academy fly-half in an unchanged Ireland backline, with an all-Munster centre pairing of James O’Leary and Rob Carney and a back three of wings Daniel Ryan and Derry Moloney and full-back Noah Byrne.

It is a familiar front row with captain Sami Bishti at tighthead prop alongside loosehead Max Doyle and hooker Lee Fitzpatrick. McNiece partners Joe Finn in the second row and Blaney joins a back row featuring Diarmaid O’Connell at No.8 and Josh Neill, a player of the match in the last two rounds, at blindside flanker.

There is a change to the replacements with head coach Browne selecting Duinn Maguire as back-up hooker for the first time since the opening round, alongside fellow front-rowers, loosehead Christian Foley and Blake McClean. With McGuire and Hayes providing back-five forward cover, scrum-half James O’Dwyer, Barrett’s former CBC and current UCC half-back partner Charlie O’Shea and centre Johnny O’Sullivan supplying the backline reinforcements.

IRELAND U20: Noah Byrne (Dublin University/Leinster); Derry Moloney (Blackrock College/Leinster), Rob Carney (Cashel/Munster), James O’Leary (UCC/Munster), Daniel Ryan (Galway Corinthians/Connacht); Tom Wood (Garryowen/Munster), Christopher Barrett (UCC/Munster); Max Doyle (UCD/Leinster), Lee Fitzpatrick (Blackrock College/Leinster), Sami Bishti (UCD/Leinster) - captain; Joe Finn (Garryowen/Munster), Dylan McNeice (UCD/Leinster); Josh Neill (Old Wesley/Leinster), Ben Blaney (Terenure College/Leinster), Diarmaid O’Connell (Galway Corinthians/Connacht) 

Replacements: Duinn Maguire (UCD/Leinster), Christian Foley (Young Munster/Munster), Blake McClean (Instonians/Ulster), Donnacha McGuire (UCD/Leinster), Billy Hayes (Garryowen/Munster), James O’Dwyer (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Charlie O’Shea (UCC/Munster), Johnny O’Sullivan (Dublin University/Leinster).

WALES U20: Rhys Cummings (Cardiff); Dylan Scott (Cardiff Met), Osian Darwin-Lewis (Cardiff), Steffan Emanuel (Cardiff) – co-captain, Tom Bowen (Cardiff); Lloyd Lucas (Cardiff), Siôn Davies (Cardiff); George Tuckley (Dragons), Tom Howe (Cardiff), Jac Pritchard (Scarlets); Luke Evans (Exeter Chiefs), Osian Williams (Bristol Bears); Deian Gwynne (Gloucester) – co-captain, Caio James (Gloucester), Evan Minto (Dragons).

Replacements: Oscar Thomas (Bath), George Leyland (Bristol Bears), Yestyn Cook (Scarlets), Oscar Rees (Gloucester), Dom Kossuth (Scarlets), Carter Pritchard (Dragons), Carwyn Leggatt-Jones (Scarlets), Bailey Cutts (Cardiff).

Referee: Kevin Bralley (France).