World Rugby U20 Championship Final: England v Ireland, AJ Bell Stadium, Manchester, Saturday, 7.0 (Live on TG4, Sky Sports 3)
England have contested the last four finals, seven of nine in total, were champions in 2013 and 2014 and are odds on favourites – the handicap with the bookmakers is nine points – to claim a third Under-20 World Championship title on home soil, in front of a sellout, 11,500 crowd in Manchester.
It underlines the magnitude of the task facing Ireland but there is empirical evidence that Nigel Carolan’s charges thrive in adversity.
This season’s Six Nations began with defeats to Wales and France and in their third match they trailed England 20-6 at halftime in Newcastle before staging a staggering comeback to win the match 26-20.
Those Lazarus–like recuperative powers have been emblematic of the journey since then that have seen them win seven matches on the bounce. In the World Championship matches they trailed Grand Slam and Six Nations champions, Wales, 17-3, world champions, New Zealand 14-6 and Georgia 7-0.
It was only in their semi-final victory over Argentina that Ireland didn’t have to clamber back into the contest. Irish under-age sides have twice reached World Cup finals, in 1998 when an Under-19 team were beaten by France 18-0 in Toulouse and 2004, when an Under-21 team went down 47-19 to New Zealand in Glasgow.
There are familial links to those past glories. Team physio Gareth Rossi is a brother of Donovan, who played fullback in 1998 and secondrow Seán O'Connor, is a first cousin to Brendan, who lined out at blindside flanker on the team beaten by the 'Baby Blacks' in 2004.
Victory this evening in Manchester would represent the high water mark in terms of accomplishment. Ireland’s victory over England in the Six Nations should have little bearing on the outcome.
The tournament hosts retain only seven starters from that night at Kingston Park – Ireland retain nine – while their team has been bolstered by several who have played in the Aviva Premiership, like captain Harry Mallinder, a son of Northampton Saints coach, Jim, and London Irish centre Johnny Williams, to name but two.
Ireland coach Nigel Carolan admitted: "They [England] are a good side with a strong scrum and a strong maul, much like ourselves. They play with a lot of width from which they have got a good return against the teams they have played against. The teams that have applied a lot of pressure against them in defence have caused them some problems as well.
“We have looked at the threats they have and tried to take that away. We will have to be very good and accurate not to give them a platform to use their maul as often as they might like.”
Ireland's scrum and lineout maul has been a lucrative source of points. Max Deegan, shortlisted for U20 world player of the year, captain James Ryan, hooker Adam McBurney and prop Andrew Porter have been standout players but quality resonates throughout the eight up front.
Ben Betts has been a bulwark, Greg Jones, omnipresent in attack and defence, O'Connor, unrelenting in his work-rate and David Aspil, a periodically immoveable object over the ball.
Johnny McPhillips has matured into the outhalf role as playmaker and place-kicker, Conor O'Brien outstanding in the centre, while Hugo Keenan and Jacob Stockdale possess the footwork and pace to prise open defences.
Stephen Kerins maintains a tempo to Ireland's game while Shane Daly and Matthew Byrne have, amongst other contributions, made some great defensive reads.
England will set-up to play in a similar way to New Zealand, using power to forge good gain-lines, looking to guarantee quick ruck ball and then playing out the back with Mallinder as the linchpin to get the ball wide to their quicksilver wings, who don’t run orthodox routes.
Ireland may have missed about 30 tackles in the New Zealand match but excellent line speed and aggression meant that many were on the other side of the advantage line and therefore non-fatal.
Discipline is a key and they’d love to replicate the New Zealand match where they conceded just four penalties, a remarkable statistic.
The game will be refereed by New Zealander Paul Williams, who took charge of Ireland’s win over Wales, and occasionally struggled to interpret what was going on at scrum time.
Ireland haven’t played a match at this Saturday’s venue but as they have proved throughout the whole tournament, nothing fazes them. It would be churlish to doubt them now.
PATHS TO THE FINAL:
England 48 Italy 10; England 44 Scotland 0; England 17 Australia 13; England 39 South Africa17.
Ireland 26 Wales 25; Ireland 33 New Zealand 24; Ireland 35 Georgia 7; Ireland 37 Argentina 7.
ENGLAND UNDER-20: M Malins (Saracens); S Aspland-Robinson (Harlequins), J Marchant (Harlequins), J Williams (London Irish), M Gallagher (Saracens); H Mallinder (Northampton Saints, capt), M Green (Yorkshire Carnegie), L Boyce (Yorkshire Carnegie), J Singleton (Worcester Warriors), B Walker (Saracens); S South (Harlequins), H Taylor (Worcester Warriors), G Nott (Sale Sharks), W Evans (Leicester Tigers), C Chick (Newcastle Falcons).
Replacements: C Piper (Harlequins), T West (Wasps), W Stuart (Wasps), A Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), J Willis (Wasps), H Randall (Gloucester), M Wright (Yorkshire Carnegie), O Thorley (Gloucester)
IRELAND UNDER-20: J Stockdale (Belfast Harlequins); M Byrne (Terenure College), S Daly (Cork Con), C O'Brien (Clontarf), H Keenan (Blackrock College); J McPhillips (QUB), S Kerins (Sligo); A Porter (UCD), A McBurney (Ballymena), B Betts (Young Munster); S O'Connor (Cashel), J Ryan (Lansdowne, capt); G Jones (UCD), D Aspil (St Mary's College), M Deegan (Lansdowne).
Replacements: V O'Brien (Cork Constitution), J Bollard (Dublin University), A Coyle (Naas), E Mintern (Cork Constitution), K Brown (Shannon), N Saunders (Harlequins), B Connon (Newcastle Falcons), J O'Brien (UCD).
Referee: P Williams (New Zealand)
Odds: England 1/4 draw 20/1 Ireland 11/4. Handicap: England (-9) 10/11, draw 20/1, Ireland (+9) 10/11
