Ireland Under 20 2016

[Oldschool]

Good start 7-0 up, Argies very physical as expected.

Typical beefy Argy pack tho'. This is going to be a tough afternoon up front.

[johng]

If only "shitey" mcphillips could kick his conversions we'd be 14 nil up

[johng]

Ha. 21 as i posted that

[johng]

Fecker has 2 dodgey kicks after I say that

[COYBIB]

Porter, Ryan, Deegan, McPhillips, Stockdale... I reckon we'll be looking back at this vintage marvelling at how unbelievably good this U20s team was based on how those mentioned go on to succeed at senior level. Very optimistic they will all play many times for the senior team. As I mentioned elsewhere, Leinster need to play the game and look poach from other academies if we're going to be supplying players all over the island... we should go after Stockdale and push hard to sign him based on the NIQs in the Leinster back three, the quality in the Ulster backline and back-three.... he looks incredibly good.

[Ruckedtobits]

Stockdale must continue to play for the team. He is big and agile but, so far for Ulster, that has not translated to outstanding ability. McPhillips, playing within himself, has had good options, even if not all perfectly executed. This half is going to about our D and it needs to be good.

[johng]

That last scrum was insane. Against that argie pack. Massive engine room

[johng]

I feel so sorry for anyone tackling porter. Much rather tackle a pint of porter....

[johng]

there they go again with that scrum

[Oldschool]

Kerins passing has been very poor. I'd like to see the the bench option given a run.
Stockdale - A bit selfish but this aspect has improved .

[Ruckedtobits]

This has been an excellent tactical and tachnical performance from 1 to 23 and including all the Coaches and Management. Was critical of Carolin during 6N, but he has got the prepation and performance spot on during this Tournament and this looks a quality, composed, performance.

Recovery for the next 5 days and then one last performance.

[Oldschool]

This has been an excellent tactical and tachnical performance from 1 to 23 and including all the Coaches and Management. Was critical of Carolin during 6N, but he has got the prepation and performance spot on during this Tournament and this looks a quality, composed, performance.

Recovery for the next 5 days and then one last performance.

Was critical of Carolin too so +1.
Deegan good value for MOM too.

[Oldschool]

Argentina are dirty niggly f^cks.
That red card offence was a disgrace.
He should get a long ban.

[jezzer]

Didn't get to see it all but we were on a different level to the Pumitas. Really promising performance. Impressed by the inside centre O'Brien.

Something that stood out a lot from the whole squad was the use of footwork to find soft shoulders. Virtually every player in every position was able to shuffle on the fly to find the half break. Impressive.

England making short work of the baby boks so far.

[hugonaut]

Absolutely excellent performance from our lads, as complete a performance in a knock-out game as I've seen from any Irish team in four years or so. Too many big performances to congratulate one by one, but the big Leinster four – Porter, Ryan, Deegan and Conor O'Brien – were uniformly first rate.

Against that, a complete implosion from the Argentines, who were lucky to get seven points and completely lost their heads in the last fifteen minutes. With the way they broke out the niggle when they were on the bad end of a beating , I was delighted that we managed to rub their noses in that loss a little more with a last minute intercept try!

[Ruckedtobits]

What a very good performance, except for re-starts. Daly and O'Brien in the middle of the park are under-rated in their impact for this team and both give McPhillips real options. I genuinely believe that O'Brien could be good enough to play Pro12 in September. He finds space, has acceleration and passes off both hands. He has grown in confidence at this level and now looks like the player he promised to be playing for Mullingar U.13's in the Youths Finals, seven years ago.

Am absolutely delighted for the entire Squad. Having followed this age grade closely for past three seasons, I am particularly fascinated by the impact of confidence on skill levels. The players of each of the last three Squads had comparable skills to these lads, but never acqiired the confidence, as a group, to display those skills like these guys.

Really looking forward to watching them again.

BTW, our 3rd choice THP, Ben Betts has been a revelation and deserves some of the adulation that Is going Porter's direction.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I feel so sorry for anyone tackling porter. Much rather tackle a pint of porter....

He's a bit of a freak in that he can explode through tackles but then because he's so heavy he can be swamped by two or three defenders and not be shifted at all and then start moving forward. So rare that someone can do both.

Brilliant performance. The improvement from the 6N is amazing, really didn't see it coming. It was brave by Carolan to set his stall out by saying that performance was everything and I thought it was the wrong call. Plus I didn't see the individual skill levels improving like you'd expect in that situation, but he's proved me very wrong and done a great job. Special mention for McPhillips who I was also hugely critical off and he's done really well. His defence will be an issue on Saturday but he's still done really well and is a very talented player.

Can't wait for Saturday now...a World Cup final...some achievement!

P.s. I hope that scumbag who got sent off gets banned for a long long time. There was a fairly unsavoury moment with one of their players dumping Deegan and then standing over him. Not nice.

[simonokeeffe]

Looks like a tough final v England

Whats our previous best finish in u20 rwc?

[hugonaut]

Looks like a tough final v England

Whats our previous best finish in u20 rwc?

Beaten semi-finalists. We were beaten finalists in the U21 World Cup back in 2004 [Jamie Heaslip's year].

[Fan with smartphone]

Quite astonishing to think that pack was down 4 fellas who would've been considered first choice. That team is a joy to watch really.