FOLLOWING THEIR HISTORIC victory over tournament hosts South Africa on Monday, the Ireland U20 rugby team will be looking to reverse their recent poor form against England in the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch this evening.
While Mike Ruddock and the Irish management has kept faith with the same starting XV that secured a win in Monday’s tournament opener, Shane Buckley and Stuart Odling have moved up to the replacement’s bench.
Ireland’s recent record against their Six Nations rivals does not make for pretty reading with the English outfit winning their last three encounters by a combined total of 50 points.
However, commenting on the IRFU website, Ruddock said: “We have done our homework and we are now looking forward to the game.
“England are the current Six Nations champions and we will have to reproduce the intensity we showed against South Africa if we are to get the same result in this game.”
The English side shows no fewer than ten changes from the team that beat Italy 64-5 in their Pool B opener on Sunday with Gloucester centre Ryan Mills captaining the side for the first time and Ben Spencer and Ben Nutley making their first starts.
With England having put nine tries past the hapless Italians, and beaten Ireland in the Six Nations decider in March, you’d imagine that the Irish team would be somewhat pessimistic ahead of the game but Hooker Niall Scannell is bullish about his team’s chances.
“We know that the win over South Africa will count for nothing going into the England game, so we have to keep building.
Every game starts from scratch so that’s what we’re going to do.”
