Ruddock's generation next look impressive

IRELAND UNDER-20S:Ireland Under-20 coach Mike Ruddock tells GERRY THORNLEYthat there's a long way to go despite last weekend's historic victory in France

TO PUT last week’s epic 13-12 win over their French counterparts in the Under-20 Six Nations into context, no Irish under-age team in this competition (or its under-21 equivalent) had won on French soil.

As first the TMO Derek Bevan overruled what seemed fairly compelling claims for a try by the French number eight Karl Chateau and then Welsh referee Neil Hennessy pinged the same player for a knock-on at the base of a French scrum, it was little wonder that the Irish players celebrated as if they’d won the World Cup final.

Following on from their 11-6 win over Wales, it leaves Ireland atop an embryonic table with Italy and Scotland to come at Dubarry Park in order to, potentially, set up a Grand Slam shoot-out with the English.

The Italians have yet to play, as their games at home to England and away to France fell foul of the weather (which, ironically, has been refixed for today) while the Scots lost 28-15 to the Welsh.

However, the one other result would also suggest that Ireland’s most daunting task awaits on the final weekend in England, whose conveyor belt of behemoths saw them reach last summer’s IRB World Junior Championship final against New Zealand, and who began their campaign with a 59-3 win in Scotland. Hence, no one in the Irish camp is inclined to get too far ahead of themselves.

Nonetheless, the win in Grenoble is the kind of gritty, sleeves-rolled-up win which can only have further enhanced what is evidently a high level of togetherness under Mike Ruddock (below).

“The boys have worked very hard, and as you saw in that game they really put their bodies on the line,” says the coach, who admits: “We’ve had a little bit of luck. We caught Wales before they were overly organised. They hadn’t had a practice game and the same could be said of the French, whose game against Italy was called off.”

By contrast, the Irish Under-20s had warmed up with games against Leinster A and Ulster A before avenging their 24-8 loss to the Welsh at the World Cup in Italy.

“That showed on the night when we were a lot more cohesive than Wales, and the same with the French. They hadn’t played a game but as ever they were big strong boys, so they took a bit of holding and we just about held out.”

It is the nature of the under-20 circuit that teams change considerably from year to year, which makes the experience of those who played last season all the more invaluable, and captain and outhalf Paddy Jackson, UL Bohemians centre JJ Hanrahan, the locks Ian Henderson and Daniel Qualter, and the Corinthians pair of flanker Aaron Conneely and scrumhalf Kieran Marmion all the more invaluable.

“They’ve been fantastic and help to generate a really good spirit amongst the boys. The other thing I’ve been preaching to the lads is just the genuine massively standards you have to generate to compete at the World Cup with just four-day turnarounds. We know we can play well on a one-off against France or England, but then four days later in the World Cup you could be playing South Africa,” says Ruddock in reference to next summer’s tournament in Stellenbosch.

Ruddock speaks from his experience, as Ireland began last summer’s tournament with strong performances against England (25-33) and South Africa (26-42) but then after beating Scotland, lost 15-5 to South Africa in the quarter-finals before fading to a 38-24 loss to Wales in the seventh/eighth place play-off in Treviso.

To put last week’s win in further context, Ireland lost in the corresponding fixture at home to France by 38-13, though Ruddock points out that provincial call-ups for players such as Andrew Conway, Brendan Macken and Luke Marshall in the Magners League, as it then was, had forced him to make nine changes from the team which had beaten Italy 28-9 away a week previously in their opener.

Ruddock doesn’t envisage so many call-ups in this year’s championship, though in any event the primacy of the provinces is something he readily understands and accepts as the proper order of things. “That’s a genuine opportunity for the boys to push on for professional contracts but I think last year was a little unique.”

Ruddock envisages the Italians will be difficult to break down, and recalls them hammering away on the short side and playing pick-and-go in a friendly in Donnybrook to keep the second-half scoreless.

“We expect them to play that way, a lot of physical contact around the edges and not going too wide too early and try and deny us the ball. But if we do generate quick ball we’d hope to open them up if we can.”

The Irish coach watched the Wales-Scotland game online while in Grenoble and says the Scots “played some good rugby and didn’t lie down. Wales went ahead and looked to be cruising it but Scotland came back with a couple of really good tries. They’re not a bad team. They’re not as physical as England or France but they do move the ball quite well.

“We have to up the physicality against them, both with go-forward and in defence, and hopefully take the sting out of them.”

As for England, Ruddock knows only too well from his time with Worcester Warriors, that the club academies are producing near ready-made adult players. “The academies produce some fine physical specimens. It will be tough, so we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves.”

Aside from his using his hands-on knowledge of the AIL scene through Ruddock’s role as coach at Lansdowne, another striking feature of this year’s Irish generation of under-20s is that Connacht, coached by Nigel Carolan, completed a clean sweep of the other three provinces, beating Ulster away (22-19), Leinster away (19-16) and Munster at home (32-18) and, accordingly provided four of last week’s starting line-up and two more on the bench.

“It’s fantastic,” says Ruddock, who also thanks Buccaneers for providing Dubarry Park on match nights and for training sessions, including live scrummaging.

“Nigel Carolan has done a superb job with Connacht and they deservedly won the interpros, and that’s reflected in some of the selections. If that keeps on happening, it’s only going to make under-20 teams even stronger.”

So, is the main purpose of the Irish Under-20s to win titles or help produce players for the provinces? Needless to say, as the class of 2010 demonstrated, it is a little bit of both.

“Obviously you want to try and win every game,” says Ruddock, “but realistically if the provinces come calling for the better players then you’re there to develop the guys who are next in line and hope the guys who go up to the provinces become professionals because of it.

“It’s a bit of both really, but if we can turn this team into a winning team and win a couple more games then I’d be delighted.”