THREE DOWN, TWO to go, and Ireland remain the team to catch in the race for the 2022 U20 Six Nations title.
So far, it’s been an impressive campaign from Richie Murphy’s squad, a group of players who haven’t shied away from the fact that they have had to punch above their weight in the physicality stakes. Tonight it’s England away [KO 7.15pm, RTÉ Player/RTÉ News Now], a game which should represent the most physically demanding challenge yet.
“I’d say they probably have a few kilos per head on us in the pack,” says second row Mark Morrissey.
“We just focus on getting one-on-ones and running into gaps instead of into double-hits, whether that be with footwork or playing small passes, playing into the space and trying to get under them as well, because if we run in high they’re just going to hold us up and then slow down our ball.
“So we want to play under their hips and get quick barrells in, resource the ball and play quickly.”
That’s been the message from Ireland throughout this campaign, the team determined to play to their own strengths rather than focus too much on the opposition. In doing that, they’ve managed to blow Wales out of the water, grind out a hard-earned win in France and overcome an ill-disciplined Italian side – who beat England 6-0 – with some ease.
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Morrissey has started every game for Ireland in this year's championship. Dave Winter / INPHO
Dave Winter / INPHO / INPHO
“Most people here can’t really rely on their weight alone so I know after training sessions lots of people are working on their footwork, pre-contact going in and then getting ball transfer, so just trying to improve our contact skills so that we don’t get exposed if we do come into those double-hits,” Morrissey continues.
“But we also know that if we do get held up a bit, we’ll have our barrells coming in behind us to help speed up the contact collision.
I think the weekend off really helped us just get in a good place physically, especially coming into this training week, we’ve kind of come in a bit more fresh knowing that we’ve a massive task on the weekend, and also to get the chance to train against the seniors last week was really beneficial as well.”
Those training sessions against Andy Farrell’s senior side clearly made a big impression with Murphy’s young squad.
“Probably the main thing I took from it was that as a forward pack, we got to maul and scrum against them, so I think that will serve us really well coming into the game this weekend, where they’re going to be a big, physical pack. So we got a feel for that at scrum time and at maul time. Then after, I was picking Ryan Baird’s brain about lineout calls, what pictures he’s seeing, and chatting over the unit session as a whole.”
UCD forward Morrissey – who also featured in last year’s championship – has started all three games so far in Ireland’s engine room, and keeps his place against England, who ended Ireland’s title hopes last season.
“We’ve looked at their lineout and scrum, and they’ll look to get ins through their maul, use their weight to work up the field and try get penalties,” Morrissey continues.
So we have a plan in place. We just need to make sure we’re down early in our slots and have low body heights so we’ll hopefully be able to stop it at source that way, because if they get any momentum it will be a lot harder for us to stop it then. So we’ll have to make sure we’re all nailed on from the start.
“Their ball-carrys have been very good, and they’re also able to score from anywhere really. Their backline is very quick and they can run it out from their own 22.
“Against Scotland they got a few tries out of their own 22, so we know we’ll have to be switched on everywhere in the park, we can’t just give them easy outs from their 22 and let them run at us.
“We’ll have to stay switched on and get high on the edges as well.”
ENGLAND U20s: George Hendy; Deago Bailey, Jacob Cusick, Ethan Grayson, Cassius Cleaves; Jamie Benson, Sam Edwards; Fin Baxter, John Stewart, Tim Hoyt; Lewis Chessum, Tom Lockett, Ewan Richards, Toby Knight, Emeka Ilione.
Replacements:Finn Theobald-Thomas, Mark Dormer, Mikey Summerfield, Chandler Cunningham-South, Lucas Brooke, Nye Thomas, Louie Johnson, Will Joseph.
IRELAND U20s: Patrick Campbell; Chay Mullins, Jude Postlethwaite, Ben Carson, Fionn Gibbons; Charlie Tector, Matthew Devine; Jack Boyle, James McCormick, Rory McGuire; Conor O’Tighearnaigh, Mark Morrissey; Lorcan McLoughlin, Reuben Crothers, James Culhane.
Replacements: Josh Hanlon, Oisin Michel, Scott Wilson, James McNabney, Diarmuid Mangan, Ethan Coughlan, Tony Butler, Aitzol King.
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella look ahead to Twickenham and two big URC games involving three of the provinces
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In-form Ireland U20s braced for physical England challenge
THREE DOWN, TWO to go, and Ireland remain the team to catch in the race for the 2022 U20 Six Nations title.
So far, it’s been an impressive campaign from Richie Murphy’s squad, a group of players who haven’t shied away from the fact that they have had to punch above their weight in the physicality stakes. Tonight it’s England away [KO 7.15pm, RTÉ Player/RTÉ News Now], a game which should represent the most physically demanding challenge yet.
“I’d say they probably have a few kilos per head on us in the pack,” says second row Mark Morrissey.
“We just focus on getting one-on-ones and running into gaps instead of into double-hits, whether that be with footwork or playing small passes, playing into the space and trying to get under them as well, because if we run in high they’re just going to hold us up and then slow down our ball.
“So we want to play under their hips and get quick barrells in, resource the ball and play quickly.”
That’s been the message from Ireland throughout this campaign, the team determined to play to their own strengths rather than focus too much on the opposition. In doing that, they’ve managed to blow Wales out of the water, grind out a hard-earned win in France and overcome an ill-disciplined Italian side – who beat England 6-0 – with some ease.
“Most people here can’t really rely on their weight alone so I know after training sessions lots of people are working on their footwork, pre-contact going in and then getting ball transfer, so just trying to improve our contact skills so that we don’t get exposed if we do come into those double-hits,” Morrissey continues.
“But we also know that if we do get held up a bit, we’ll have our barrells coming in behind us to help speed up the contact collision.
Those training sessions against Andy Farrell’s senior side clearly made a big impression with Murphy’s young squad.
“Probably the main thing I took from it was that as a forward pack, we got to maul and scrum against them, so I think that will serve us really well coming into the game this weekend, where they’re going to be a big, physical pack. So we got a feel for that at scrum time and at maul time. Then after, I was picking Ryan Baird’s brain about lineout calls, what pictures he’s seeing, and chatting over the unit session as a whole.”
UCD forward Morrissey – who also featured in last year’s championship – has started all three games so far in Ireland’s engine room, and keeps his place against England, who ended Ireland’s title hopes last season.
“We’ve looked at their lineout and scrum, and they’ll look to get ins through their maul, use their weight to work up the field and try get penalties,” Morrissey continues.
“Their ball-carrys have been very good, and they’re also able to score from anywhere really. Their backline is very quick and they can run it out from their own 22.
“Against Scotland they got a few tries out of their own 22, so we know we’ll have to be switched on everywhere in the park, we can’t just give them easy outs from their 22 and let them run at us.
“We’ll have to stay switched on and get high on the edges as well.”
ENGLAND U20s: George Hendy; Deago Bailey, Jacob Cusick, Ethan Grayson, Cassius Cleaves; Jamie Benson, Sam Edwards; Fin Baxter, John Stewart, Tim Hoyt; Lewis Chessum, Tom Lockett, Ewan Richards, Toby Knight, Emeka Ilione.
Replacements: Finn Theobald-Thomas, Mark Dormer, Mikey Summerfield, Chandler Cunningham-South, Lucas Brooke, Nye Thomas, Louie Johnson, Will Joseph.
IRELAND U20s: Patrick Campbell; Chay Mullins, Jude Postlethwaite, Ben Carson, Fionn Gibbons; Charlie Tector, Matthew Devine; Jack Boyle, James McCormick, Rory McGuire; Conor O’Tighearnaigh, Mark Morrissey; Lorcan McLoughlin, Reuben Crothers, James Culhane.
Replacements: Josh Hanlon, Oisin Michel, Scott Wilson, James McNabney, Diarmuid Mangan, Ethan Coughlan, Tony Butler, Aitzol King.
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella look ahead to Twickenham and two big URC games involving three of the provinces
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