Ireland to face NZ in U21 world champ final

Jilm

Ireland U21 beat Aus 26-13 in the semis (having already beaten France) and will play a shít hot baby black side in the final. Story here.

Hopefully they can emulate the '99 U19 Ireland team!

RodVelvet

Just watched the match on Eurosport.Ireland were very deserving of their win.Hopefully they will take the trophy home against the All Blacks.Id be hoping for another wet day, seems to suit Ireland more.With some luck some of these players will be able to make the step up to the senior side one day.I likw the look of the outhalf myself.

istep

Damn that's a fine result .... wish i'd known it was on eurosport tho:(

uberwolf

here's the text of the indo report, I'm kinda tempted to travel to the final...



_________________________
Green machine drives Irish into Kiwi decider
Thursday June 24th 2004


Ireland's Richard Lane goes over for Ireland's second try despite the attention of Australia's Henari Veratu during last night's Under 21 World Rugby Championship semi-final in Glasgow. Picture: Brian Lawless

IRELAND 26
AUSTRALIA 13

IRELAND saved the IRB Under-21 World Championship from becoming an exclusive club for southern hemisphere teams after a rousing victory at a cold and soaking Hughenden in Glasgow last night.

The men in emerald green produced their best rugby of the tournament at a crucial time to humble the finalists of the last two years, outscoring Australia by three tries to two.

Rarely did Australia escape the confines of their own half and in the second period they hardly left their own 22-metre area, such was Ireland's dominance.

Wallaby coach Laurie Fisher warned this week that Ireland "have a good eight, nine, ten and 12."

And he was right. Inside centre Glen Telford earned the man of the match award but this was a night for the team. Testament to this was that coach Mark McDermott did not make a substitution in the entire match, a rarity in these modern times.

"No one gave us a chance, but we knew if we stuck to our game plan and played to our potential we would win," McDermott said.

Ireland will meet New Zealand in the final and if the weather continues its current pattern then the green jerseys will fancy their chances as New Zealand's sublime backs might be stifled.

Underpinning Ireland's flair last night was a rock solid base built around a hard-working and well-schooled tight five and a loose trio that hunt in a pack.

Unsupported Australian ball carriers were unceremoniously robbed of possession by the backrow highwaymen, while on attack they supported their runners brilliantly.

Worse sides than Australia would have folded completely and lost by a wide margin, but Down Under they are not built like that.

Ireland set-up camp inside the Aussie 22 for most of the third quarter, but Australia stood firm. They never lost their defensive shape and survived off the occasional scraps that Ireland threw their way in the form of the odd knock-on or wayward punt.

But when hooker Denis Fogarty was driven over with 10 minutes to go, Australia finally knew the game was up.

Predictably Ireland came out with nostrils flaring, roared on by the partisan crowd and enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges, although they only had a 16th minute Gareth Steenson penalty to show for it.

Australia erased the lead when fly-half Daniel Halangahu landed a three-pointer of his own on 19 minutes and then gave the men in gold the lead for the first time with another shot at goal in the 23rd minute.

But Ireland kept plugging away, knowing that they had the upper hand at the set pieces and at the breakdown. From a powerful scrum on the Australian 22-metre line the ball was moved left where a dummy run on the angle by fullback Andrew Finn created space for centre John Hearty to throw a long, flat pass that freed up left wing Paul McKenzie.

He appeared to have got the better of fullback Drew Mitchell, but the Reds Super 12 player made a brilliant and desperate tackle which stopped the wing. But he wasn't able to stop the inside pass that was scooped up by the outstanding Telford who scored.

From the kick-off the marauding No 8 Jamie Heaslip broke through a wall of defenders and raced diagonally across the field before throwing a perfect pass into the hands of right-wing Richard Lane, who just grounded the ball before the cover could get there.

thejollyrodger

lets hope that ireland can go all the way and win it !!

great performance

MarVeL

Anyone know if this is televised anywhere other than eurosport (damn NTL)? Travelling, while a nice concept, is out of the question for me this weekend

Sheep Shagger

This Sunday

Kickoff is 4pm

istep

Aaaaah .... Is maith liom TG4!

daveirl

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Big Ears

It looks like Irish rugby has a bright future ahead of it , and hopefully we win on Sunday .

daveirl

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istep

Absolutely ... a tight head talent coming thru would be nice!

Take yr point on players coming thru very few actually come thru to the pro setup.

Big Ears

While I agree in most sports that a lot of young players dont go on to be pros . But when the side has won the World Championship u would assume they would .

Then agin yee know a lot more about rugby than me .

qwertyup

Losing 26-11 at half time. Could be much much worse on the balance of play.

Hagar

And while the rugger buggers are singing "Ireland's Call" TG4 puts up Éire on the score graphic.

Some days I just smile.

qwertyup

Finished up 47-19 in New Zealands favour.

Again, could have been a far heavier defeat.

uberwolf

class apart really, the Irish just couldn't get the ball to themselves for any extended period. I turned off with ten minutes to go because the Irish discipline seemed to be disappearing. Shame, but fair play to them all the same.

Hairy Homer

Originally posted by uberwolf
class apart really, the Irish just couldn't get the ball to themselves for any extended period. I turned off with ten minutes to go because the Irish discipline seemed to be disappearing. Shame, but fair play to them all the same.

They fought back well. It looked as if NZ were going to run riot in the last ten minutes but fair play to the boys, the last few minutes were spent in the NZ 22 and the last action of the match was the Irish pack crashing over the line, but they were deemed not to have grounded the ball.

The packs were evenly matched: the difference, I thought, was the speed and cohesion the Blacks brought to their backline moves. Any time one of them got a half break there were support runners available to take the attack on. All passes going to hand. All team work moving at pace. Nothing new really. It's been said millions of times before.

As for youth teams progressing to the senior level. Of the Irish team that won the under 19 World Cup in 1998, three of them were in the squad for the senior World Cup down under last year. Paddy Wallace, who has yet to be capped. Donncha O'Callaghan and a certain Mr O'Driscoll.

istep

Yup the difference was definetly the backs ... that NZ full back was scary fast !!

daveirl

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qwertyup

He wasn't actually that much quicker than the rest.

What he did have, however, was some frankly sickening accelleration over 5-10 meters, which is exactly what you need to cut up an opposition backline.

I'd be interested to see if he can make it in senior rugby, given he seemed one of the few NZ players with physical development not much if any greater than the irish players.