Welsh Woes As Ireland U20s Win

Ireland U20s enjoyed an impressive 14 point win over Wales in their second Pool B game of the 2014 JWC. The game took place this morning with the Munster Academy’s Rory Burke amongst the try scorers.

Taking place in Pukekohe on the North Island of New Zealand, the result saw the Irish put memories of a recent 0-16 Welsh defeat to bed. Despite leaking two tries via scrum pressure and having Peter Dooley and Munster’s Alex Wootton sin-binned either side of half-time, the young team showed composure to achieve their most convincing win over the Welshmen since 2004.

Munster’s Rory Burke was first to cross for Ireland, the prop scoring his first U20 try while winning his seventh cap. Centre Garry Ringrose was the second to touch down with both opening tries inside the first eleven minutes of the game.

Initial dominance at scrum time kept Wales in the game, and following the yellow carding of Peter Dooley, a penalty try brought the gap down to three. 17-14 at the break.

The Welsh looked as if they were in the ascendancy at the beginning of the second half when Munster’s Alex Wootton saw yellow for a challenge on Welsh out-half Angus O'Brien. With Ireland reduced to 13 mean, the Welsh capitalised and soon scored from an advancing scrum.

That however was to be Wales’ final score of the game, as both the Irish forwards and backs rallied together, maintaining possession and gaining territory, tiring out the Welsh defence. Leading by example, Irish Captain Jack O’Donoghue of the Munster Academy put in another fine shift at number 8 while the centre partnership of Munster’s Dan Goggin and Ringrose played a big part in Ireland’s go forward ball. Ringrose was the next to cross the whitewash on 51 minutes, putting the Irish back in the lead.

Two further Ross Byrne penalties took Ireland beyond a converted try of the Welsh, before Ringrose and Ciaran Gaffney combined to put full-back Cian Kelleher over in the right corner. The try secured an important bonus point victory for Mike Ruddock’s men, and provided valuable experience to all eight Munster representatives.

Now with a real chance of reaching the semi-finals, Ireland U20’s face Fiji next Tuesday, hoping for another bonus point success and a favourable outcome from the France-Wales clash.

See video highlights of the game by clicking here.

Ireland U20 v Wales

Cian Kelleher, Ciaran Gaffney, Garry Ringrose, Dan Goggin (Harrison Brewer77), Alex Wootton(Ryan Foley 49) Max Abbott (Dylan Donnellan), Rory Burke (Oisin Heffernan 73); Darragh Moloney (Josh Murphy 33), Ross Molony; Peadar Timmins, Frankie Taggart (Diarmaid Dee 67), Jack O' Donoghue – capt.