Ruddock ready for English challenge

IRELAND COACH Mike Ruddock is determined that his side’s stunning 23-19 win over South Africa in the under-20 World Championship in Stellenbosch will not be a one off. Instead he has stressed the importance of his team looking forward to Friday’s second match of the tournament against England, rather than luxuriating in the victory over the baby Boks.

He admitted: “Yeah, we are pleased but we can’t afford to get ecstatic because we have another big game against England in four days time. They are Six Nations champions. If we pat ourselves on the back too much we’ll lose focus on trying to prepare for that.”

England were beaten by France in the Six Nations but denied Ireland a Grand Slam with a thoroughly deserved victory. Ruddock accepted: “We got beaten by them in the Six Nations. We have a fair bit of homework to do.

“We learnt our lessons when we were beaten twice by South Africa last year (in this tournament). We came back determined to do better and achieved that goal. England beat us in the last two Six Nations games that I have been involved in. We will do well to improve that and close that gap but that’s our goal.”

The Irish coach conceded that the win over South Africa had given the squad and management huge satisfaction. “It was a great performance by the team. We knew what we had to do; defend strongly, make our tackles count, put the big South Africans lads on the floor. We got our second man on (the tackle area) and pressurised the ruck, gave them slow ball and then got after their halfbacks.

“From that slower ball we managed to get two charge downs which both led to tries. Our plan worked like a dream. Obviously there was more to it than that. Our set piece pressure was good. Our ability to pass the ball was quite good. We didn’t get that many chances so we had to make a lot of tackles and executed our defence strongly.”

He paid tribute to the performance of Munster’s JJ Hanrahan. “He did very well. Paddy Jackson couldn’t make it out here so JJ Hanrahan went to 10 having played centre in the Six Nations. For him to deliver that quality of performance was a testament to his skill, ability and leadership qualities.”

South Africa coach Dawie Theron was stunned by the defeat: “This is the last thing we expected . . . Ireland played well; they had a good kicking game and a good set piece and in the end they used their opportunities.”