IRELAND U20 COACH Richie Murphy says that this team remains well placed to qualify for the World Rugby U20 Championship semi-finals despite a 34-34 draw with England in Paarl.
With a little over 10 minutes to play in the opening Pool B fixture, Ireland enjoyed a 10-point lead and appeared to be on course for victory.
A lapse in concentration, however, saw them concede a yellow as well as a red card in the closing stages, and England hit back to score 10 points and snatch a draw.
Afterwards, Murphy pointed out that destiny remains in Ireland’s hands. If they beat Australia and Fiji in the coming weeks, they should do enough to qualify for the playoffs.
“The big thing is that we got three [log] points out of the game,” the Ireland U20 coach said. “We’re probably in a similar position now to where we were before we started the game. If we can control the games against Australia and Fiji, we can go through. Three points isn’t such a bad thing.
“The lads are disappointed, but they’ve got nothing to be disappointed about. We’re still very much in the competition. It’s a big first game, so the only thing you can’t do is lose it. We didn’t lose, now we must regroup, learn our lessons, and move on.”
England flyhalf Connor Slevin nailed several important kicks for his side, including a touchline conversion in the 71st minute. By contrast, Ireland No 10 Sam Prendergast had a poor outing with the boot, missing four shots on goal.
Murphy brushed aside suggestions that goal-kicking had cost Ireland the win.
“It’s definitely not a concern. Sam is a world-class goal-kicker. He just had a bad day. He’ll be disappointed no doubt, but he’ll move on.
“We sort of won the game, lost it, won it again, lost it again… Under-20s rugby can be a little like that.
“Although the surface held up pretty good [after heavy rains in the region], it was still pretty heavy underfoot. We’re a team that likes to keep ball in hand. We probably overplayed that at times, and that is something to look at.
“It’s hard to carry out of your own half in these conditions. We probably didn’t execute our kicking game as we would have liked.”
Ireland centre Hugh Cooney was shown a red card in the 76th minute, and Murphy’s charges were forced to finish the game with 14 men. Afterwards, the coach questioned the consistency of the officiating over the course of the game.
“I can understand why it’s a red card, but there are three or four head shots in the game that have been missed.
“There was a double head shot when [England flank Greg] Fiselau got a yellow card. I don’t know what’s happening there. We’ll have to see what they decide and if [Cooney] will be available for the next game.”