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.

The rest of us are still getting used to the sight of Irish players physically dominating opponents like South Africa, but Murphy and co. have been busy discovering new layer after new layer in their squad.

Size is helpful but it’s not everything. Players need to be fit, explosive, and intelligent to make the best use of it. That’s what this Ireland U20s group has done in order to win a Grand Slam and now reach the final of the World Championship in South Africa.

The likes of Brian Gleeson, Ruadhan Quinn, Conor O’Tighearnaigh, Paddy McCarthy, Diarmuid Mangan, Ronan Foxe, and captain Gus McCarthy have big frames and bring immense physicality but they’re smart, skillful, hard-working players too.

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.

They have proven themselves resilient beyond their years in dealing with tragedy off the pitch and Murphy’s men are clearly on a mission.

Ireland scrum-half Fintan Gunne celebrates. SteveHaagSports / Darren Stewart/INPHO SteveHaagSports / Darren Stewart/INPHO / Darren Stewart/INPHO

Their dismantling of hosts South Africa in yesterday’s semi-final underlined so many of their qualities. A final against the mightily in-form France awaits on Friday and promises to be an epic battle. 

Ireland will need to go up another level again but much of what they delivered yesterday should give them confidence.

Leading 7-0 at half time in Cape Town was a major achievement given just how much Ireland had to defend over the course of the opening 40 minutes. It was a Baby Boks onslaught at times.

Murphy’s men had very little possession in the South African half until after the break and their first visit into the home side’s 22 didn’t come until the 32nd minute when Mangan came up just short of scoring.

Ireland’s overall tackle count for the game was 181 – that’s high – and much of the tackling was done in the first half. Some of the defending was top-class on what was a rather pleasing day for defence and lineout coach Andrew Browne.

Paddy McCarthy, who has also played tighthead this year, was outstanding at loosehead prop, with his efforts symbolising the collective Irish defensive performance.

In the instance below, McCarthy gets a good initial stop on South African lock Coetzee Le Roux just before the equally impactful Gleeson joins the contest.

Having slowed Le Roux’s momentum, the Irish pair target the ball and combine to strip it clear for a crucial turnover.

In the 22nd minute, Ireland were forced to produce a massive defensive set in their own 22 as the South Africans attempted to capitalize on all the early possession and territory.

Over the course of 10 phases, Ireland delivered physicality, work-rate and technical quality, with McCarthy prominent.

Having helped to stop the initial maul effort from South Africa, Ireland’s loosehead made three tackles, including the one just before the home team knocked on.

This carry straight over the top of the previous tackle is something England were caught out by repeatedly in their semi-final defeat to France yesterday, but McCarthy and Irish lock Charlie Irvine show their awareness.

McCarthy’s power and aggression are evident above, while the tackle below – just minutes later – is a great illustration of those attributes.

McCarthy’s momentous hit wins the gainline for Ireland just after the Baby Boks have broken into their 22 again.

With the South Africans rocked and scrambling to clear the breakdown, impressive tighthead prop Foxe forces a turnover with a clever invention on the next phase.

With Ireland struggling to keep the ball themselves, the South African onslaught continued apace and Murphy’s men had to keep delivering defensively.

In the 30th minute, McCarthy shows his smarts around maul defence as he makes a good read of the South African back peel play. As the home side seemingly set a maul around their lineout jumper, McCarthy looks set to commit to defending that threat…

… 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.

It’s clever from McCarthy to so quickly realise that a maul hasn’t yet been created, meaning no danger of side entry or being pinged for collapsing.

Watch the play unfold below as he nips the threat in the bud.

A couple of phases later, Foxe pounces for a brilliant jackal penalty, helping to complete the tackle, showing a clear release, then clamping over the ball.

McCarthy’s most eye-catching moment of the game was a jaw-dropping counter-ruck in which he manhandled South African fullback Hakeem Kunene.

McCarthy is penalised here for his actions after the counter-ruck, but it was arguably harsh call.

As we can see above, South African scrum-half Imad Khan has his hands on the ball before Kunene is launched into him and knocks him backwards, so McCarthy justifiably feels the ball is out.

However, referee Anthony Woodthorpe clearly doesn’t agree and shouts ‘No!’ in the split second before McCarthy grabs it. McCarthy isn’t able to resist in a situation he feels is legal but while he’s penalised, this effort shows his explosiveness.

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.

Even after the game was essentially decided as a contest, we saw Ireland digging in defensively and enjoying big moments without the ball. In the 74th minute, it’s relentless centre Devine who forces a turnover.

The Baby Boks did add a second try soon after but Ireland fought every inch of the way in an encouraging show of their grit. They will need lots more of it in the final against France.

With Ireland’s defence having held firm in the first half, they landed a decisive blow by scoring their first try minutes before the interval. It was a major psychological win for Murphy’s side.

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. 

As we see below, a clever play around the back of a dummy maul targets the space on the inside of the tailgunner – as Ireland did for a try against Fiji – but Gunne’s pass to wing Andrew Osborne is stopped by a knock-on. 

Would Osborne have scored? We can see that Baby Boks scrum-half Khan is moving across from the touchline but it still would have taken quite a tackle. There’s a strong argument for a yellow card here but Ireland instead use the penalty advantage to try-scoring effect.

Paddy McCarthy carries around the corner on the next phase, then out-half Prendergast finds Nicholson with a cross kick.

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.

It’s worth noting that Prendergast had connected with Nicholson through a cross-kick earlier in this game, but Ireland were turned over in that instance as the wing was left isolated just outside his own 22. Undeterred, this fearless Irish team went back to the tactic as an attacking weapon for Nicholson’s two tries.

In this instance, the Ireland wing has to slow to collect the ball, leaning in to receive it, but his subsequent acceleration is top-end. Note how South Africa fullback Kunene is already sprinting when Nicholson catches the ball. Nicholson obviously has a headstart in being closer to the tryline but he still has to get moving rapidly to deny Kunene a better try-saving attempt.

It’s sharp stuff from Nicholson and then Prendergast adds a brilliant touchline conversion to hammer the big psychological win home. Ireland lead 7-0 at the break.

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.

But the Irish response is emphatic. Superb handling puts South Africa under pressure, they give up a penalty, Prendergast goes into the corner, and the totemic Gleeson surges over from a back peel play.

It’s obviously poor defence from South Africa with would-be tacklers standing off rather than putting themselves in harm’s way, which is understandable when you consider the sheer power and size of Gleeson.

He gets great pace into his carry, fending the first effort from Baby Boks skipper Paul Dde Villiers and then simply thunders past out-half Jean Smith and centre Ethan Hooker to score through Khan’s last-ditch effort.

This is the kind of moment where a side like Ireland knows they have the winning of the game and they never looked back.

Nicholson’s second try capped an excellent passage in which 11 different players touched the ball, with Gleeson making valuable metres initially on another back peel off the maul set-up. The key deft touch comes from Devine in midfield, as we see below.

His late short pass to replacement centre Sam Berman is clever, with Devine recognising that South Africa centre Katlego Letebele has read off Berman.

As indicated below, the presence of Prendergast out the back as a possible passing option for Devine is key. With Devine’s body language selling that possible option, Letebele advances beyond Berman.

It’s a smart decision from Devine and he follows it up with an outstanding clearout at the ensuing breakdown, where South Africa flanker de Villiers is a big turnover threat.

Watch how Devine accelerates in to clear him away, allowing Gunne to retain possession for Ireland.

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.

Again, Prendergast pulls the trigger with that advantage playing as the South Africans narrow up on their own tryline.

Prendergast’s curling kick finds Nicholson wide on the left again and though he has to check to gather, it works in his favour as he simply steps back inside Khan to finish.

Ireland’s fourth and final try was another brilliant collective effort in which backs and forwards combined again.

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.

The Irish players have a habit of winning these little battles and Nicholson’s determination here allows Ireland to continue attacking.

Back row Quinn makes a savage carry on the next phase.

Carrying off a wide ruck like this is not easy, with the defence able to bring more linespeed, but Quinn shows his explosive power to dominate the collision.

As Quinn is carrying, we can see that McErlean and Berman are working infield after resourcing the previous breakdown over Nicholson.

McErlean appears to be communicating to Nicholson to hold the width on that left-hand side, but McErlean himself and Berman will work hard to swing all the way across to the right-hand side of the pitch where McErlean will deliver the scoring pass to Berman two phases later.

After Quinn’s big surge, Paddy McCarthy carries off Prendergast in the middle of the pitch, splitting the South African defence, and Ireland are ready to strike for the kill.

Prendergast has several options, with Mangan on his inside and Gleeson outside. 

Gleeson’s line proves particularly important as it turns South African lock Jannes Potgieter in [pink above], leaving space outside for Ireland to exploit. The Baby Boks were clearly extremely worried about Gleeson all day and in this instance, his decoy is key.

Prendergast pulls his pass out the back to Devine, who draws in the next defender before passing to McErland, who has swung all the way across with Berman.

McErlean’s catch-pass under pressure is excellent to give Berman time on the ball.

The impactful Berman has Gus McCarthy and Osborne outside him but dummies a pass, fires up a left-hand fend, and finishes confidently. It’s a fluid, skillful, cohesive attack from Ireland.

Another aspect of Ireland’s victory over South Africa that’s important to mention is their set-piece work, which was excellent again.

This clearly isn’t a vintage South Africa U20s pack but it was hugely encouraging for Irish scrum and contact coach Aaron Dundon to see his men winning two imposing scrum penalties off the hosts. Again, it’s a sight the rest of us are still getting used to.

At lineout time, Ireland won 13 of their 15 throws in another calm showing, while the Irish maul did major damage, winning a further two penalties. Lineout coach Browne will be delighted with how his side performed in that aspect.

With Murphy able to welcome back row James McNabney and wing/fullback Rory Telfer back from suspension for the final against the French, Ireland will have improved selection options ahead of Friday.

Murphy will be hoping his men have saved their best for last.