RUGBY:THE IRELAND U20 team will bid for their first win over one of the Southern Hemisphere top three in the Junior World Championship when they take on South Africa in a fifth place semi-final in Padua.
It will be the second time in nine days the two will have met and it gives Ireland a great chance to turn around last week’s 42-26 loss in the pool stages.
Mike Ruddock’s men will go into the clash on a high after a storming finish which saw them defeat Scotland by 30-13 to ensure they qualified as the last seed in the middle tier for this week’s play-offs.
In contrast, South Africa could be dejected after losing 26-20 to England, a result which saw them miss the semi-finals for the first time since the competition started in 2008. They had high hopes of hosting the event in South Africa as champions. It remains to be seen how they react to the loss.
Ireland make just one change, with the versatile David Doyle coming in to the backrow in place of Dominic Gallagher.
Ruddock said the win over Scotland was a good confidence-booster and they were looking forward to pitting themselves again against the Baby Boks.
He said they knew they were going to face a tough test when they were drawn to play England and South Africa in the opening two games.
“I think we acquitted ourselves very well against them and we certainly didn’t look inferior to them in a lot of ways. And we are particularly kicking ourselves looking back that we lost to England.
“We gave them a 13-point head start through a couple of basic errors and put ourselves in a winning position with just two or three minutes to go. We felt that we let them off the hook and it just shows how good they are after they breezed past South Africa and into the top tier.
“It shows on our day that we can give anyone a game and that we have definitely improved. I though our defence in particular improved against a very tough, industrious Scotland team who just wouldn’t give up,” he said.
Ireland’s best finish in the Junior World Championship, which has been won in each of its three years by New Zealand, was eighth two years ago in Japan, a position they will at least equal this week.
They will play either Wales or Fiji in their final game, which could be their last in the tournament given the IRFU’s proposed move to withdraw from the competition from next season, primarily over player welfare issues.
The IRB yesterday pointed out that no country had pulled out of the championship but that a restructuring two years ago led to the creation of a secondary tournament, the Junior World Rugby Trophy, with promotion and relegation, in operation.
IRELAND: T O'Halloran (Galwegians); A Conway (Blackrock), B Macken (Blackrock), L Marshall (Ballymena), A Boyle (UCD); P Jackson (Dungannon), K Marmion (Univ of Wales Institute Cardiff); J Tracy (UCD), N Annett (Belfast Harlequins), T Furlong (Clontarf); M Kearney (Clontarf), I Henderson (Queen's University); E McKeon (Galwegians), D Doyle (UCD), J Murphy (Lansdowne). Replacements: F Bealham (Belfast Harlequins), C Gilroy (Dungannon), D Qualter (Buccaneers), S Buckley (Garryowen), P Du Toit (UCD), J McKinney (Queen's University), A Kelly (UCD).
