England Under-20 v Ireland Under-20
The Rec (7.15, live on RTÉ 2, BBC iPlayer)
Ireland senior scrum coach John Fogarty put in succinctly when asked if a team could prevail without a functioning scrum. “No scrum, no win.” He was referencing a tough day against England at Twickenham two years ago, but his assertion carries resonance for Friday’s age-grade game in Bath.
Mark Mapletoft’s unbeaten, table-topping England side have a very powerful scrum, the best in the tournament, underpinned by the twin buttresses at prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour – he caused Leinster a problem or two while playing for Sale Sharks in a Champions Cup match – and Billy Sela, who will be running out on his home ground.
The English head coach has recalled his first choice secondrow pairing who missed the win over Scotland, Olamide Sodeke and Junior Kpoku, who is playing his rugby under Stuart Lancaster at Racing 92. This allows captain Finn Carnduff to switch back to blindside flanker. The home side have plumped for an outsize pack on the cloying, muddy surface of the Rec.
Centre Ben Waghorn and hooker Jacob Oliver are the other changes to the starting team. There are two survivors from last season’s squad when Ireland won the Grand Slam by beating England at Musgrave Park, namely Opoku-Fordjour and Carnduff.
Mapletoft said: “Richie [Murphy] is a coach I have great respect for. He and his staff have built a very impressive programme, and we look forward to welcoming them to write another chapter.”
Ireland's Twickenham Test
Murphy has opted to change the entire frontrow and also recall Alan Spicer to the secondrow, with Joe Hopes reverting to blindside flanker. Scrum coach Aaron Dundon has to find a way to negate or at least limit any potential damage in a facet of the game in which Ireland have had a few problems against France and Italy.
As defence coach Willie Faloon pointed out, there’s a limit to how much can be accomplished in a short time frame. “It is a pretty tight week and there are a lot of things to get done. Again, the more you take out of [the players], the less they potentially have to give on the Friday, so we are very aware of it. We just prepped as normal.
“The fact that we are three games into the tournament at this stage, we have a fair bit of footage on them. Sometimes that can be off-putting because you have so much footage to look at. The two teams have come up against each other five times in the last three years between [the summer Six Nations played in] Italy, the Junior World Cup [and the other Six Nations tournaments] so we know each other pretty well.”
Ireland teams have successfully stared down this situation in the past, beaten the physically bigger team and shredded reputations, but to do so this time may require producing a display that surpasses their efforts in a marvellous win against France in Aix-en-Provence. They need to be accurate and disciplined.
Faloon said: “It’s a young team, we play with a bit of free spirit and try and throw it around, so probably a little bit of accuracy in a few areas that we can get a little bit better at, but that’s fairly standard for the group we are working with.”
Ireland must maintain the courage they’ve shown in previous matches to vigorously pursue the expansive approach that has been a hallmark of Murphy teams. They won’t die wondering. They have some outstanding players, including centre Hugh Gavin, a focal point for carrying behind the scrum, but winning will require a 23-man contribution.
They have to deny England scoring opportunities. The home side will start as favourites, rightly so, but there were holes, notably in midfield, in previous games. If Ireland do win and go on to challenge for a third straight Grand Slam, it would rank alongside the best achievements at this level.
England: B Redshaw (Newcastle Falcons); T Cousins (Northampton Saints), B Waghorn (Harlequins), S Kerr (Harlequins), A Willis (Sale Sharks); J Bellamy (Harlequins), A McParland (Northampton Saints); A Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks), J Oliver (Newcastle Falcons), B Sela (Bath); Ó Sodeke (Saracens), J Kpoku (Racing 92); F Carnduff (Leicester Tigers, capt), H Pollock (Northampton Saints), N Michelow (Saracens). Replacements: J Isaacs (Saracens), S Kirk (Bath), James Halliwell (Bristol), Z Carr (Harlequins), K James (Exeter Chiefs), B Douglas (Newcastle Falcons), G Makepeace-Cubitt (Rams), Ó Spencer (Newcastle Falcons).
Ireland: B O’Connor (UCC); F Treacy (Galwegians), W de Klerk (UCD), H Gavin (Galwegians), H McLaughlin (Lansdowne); J Murphy (Clontarf), Ó Coffey (Blackrock College); A Usanov (Clontarf), D Sheahan (Cork Constitution), J Boyd (QUB); A Spicer (UCD), E O’Connell (UL Bohemian, capt); J Hopes (QUB), B Ward (Ballynahinch), L Murphy (Shannon). Replacements: H Walker (QUB), B Howard (Terenure College), P Bell (Sale Sharks), B Corrigan (Old Wesley), S Edogbo (UCC), T Brophy (Naas), S Naughton (Galway Corinthians), D Colbert (Dublin University).
