Ireland have proven themselves resilient beyond their years in dealing with tragedy off the pitch and are clearly on a mission. Here's how they marched into a World Cup final:
WHEN RICHIE MURPHY and his Ireland U20s coaches first began assessing the current group last year, the one thing that really excited them was the sheer size of the forwards.
With a clever backline guided by mature halfbacks in Fintan Gunne and Sam Prendergast, and featuring savvy, gritty footballers like John Devine and Henry McErlean, this Ireland U20s side has found an effective blend. Ireland will need to go up another level again but much of what they delivered yesterday should give them confidence.
Paddy McCarthy, who has also played tighthead this year, was outstanding at loosehead prop, with his efforts symbolising the collective Irish defensive performance. Over the course of 10 phases, Ireland delivered physicality, work-rate and technical quality, with McCarthy prominent. McCarthy’s momentous hit wins the gainline for Ireland just after the Baby Boks have broken into their 22 again.
… but McCarthy reads their true intention rapidly and breaks off to complete a tackle on the new ball-carrier before the Baby Boks can create a maul with real momentum. Defensive application is usually a good indicator of the spirit of a squad. In that sense, this game underlined how tightly-knit this Irish group is and how willing they are to work hard for each other.
Ireland’s set-piece attack has been excellent in this World Championship, with Murphy and attack coach Mark Sexton producing some brilliant plays, and they nearly scored on first phase of the passage that led to James Nicholson’s opening try. It’s a nice kick from Prendergast, even if he probably wanted to get just a hint more power into it, and the finish from Nicholson is superb.
Murphy’s men do concede within six minutes of the restart, with South Africa striking in lethal fashion on kick return as Ireland sit off them out on the right edge rather than aggressively closing space. This is the kind of moment where a side like Ireland knows they have the winning of the game and they never looked back.
Foxe and skipper Gus McCarthy make another excellent clearout over Gunne, then the Irish forwards take over with their pick-and-jam game to earn penalty advantage for offside. Nicholson makes inroads up the left initially on first phase off an Irish scrum, showing fight to win his chip back over the head of Baby Boks wing Jurenzo Julius.
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