Irish Under-20's 2023

A-Train

The lineout fails again and France on the attack again.

omerin

How is the hooker still on

phog

While typing that last message, Ireland lost two lineouts, can't have a platform when you're not confident of winning your lineout

bluedex

Fair play to them, still fighting. The French look bemused to be penalised "we've been playing the ball on the ground all match, why penalised us now?"

Lineout lost Ireland the game.

JRant

Hard to win a lineout when players jump across the gap like that.

randomname2005

Waste. France going to be deserved winners, some great players for the future. hope it is not going to foretell the world cup later in the year

TomsOnTheRoof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852347#Comment_120852347

He's not had a good game unfortunately. You can't have your fly half just shipping on the ball like that.

Xander10

Where's the tackling

phog

That's scandalous defending, shocking stuff

leakyboots

Prendergast, that's very poor defence

JRant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852353#Comment_120852353

We haven't offered anything this half in fairness. I think the tournament schedule finally caught up with us.

A-Train

Terrible just terrible. Prendergast after being up in sky after the 6 nations is smack bang back to earth. He must be carrying an injury because he has been terrible.

JRant

This try should be chalked off as well. He was ahead of the ball when he picked it up from the rucks.

lawrencesummers

Prendergast had a chance at the last tackle. Couldn't make it.

Its a gaping hole in his game that he needs to work on.

FrancieBrady

Disappointing mistakes but that was always a big ask. Awesome French team all the way through

JRant

Wow, they allowed the try.

ionadnapokot

Brilliant try

the 7, 6, 9 and 12 are surely destined to get senior caps for France

randomname2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852354#Comment_120852354

Thought I was the only one questioning that

phog

Look, I'm very happy with what this team went through since heading to SA that they got this far. We met an absolutely brilliant French team and under normal circumstances we might have been in with a chance but today simply wasn't our day.

Congratulations France

mun1

We did brilliantly to get to the final. Well done to coaches and players.

picked the final for our worst performance which is a shame.

I’m sure there will be no one more disappointed than the players. Our missed tackles must be over 20 at this stage

SaoPaulo41

Ah fcuk 50

theVersatile

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852381#Comment_120852381

Definitely the French standout players today.

Locke_Lamora

Ah well, on another day we might've given them a better game but they were favoured for a reason - keep in mind two of there backs are missing to train for the world cup.

There's a clear power difference which is making a mess of our rucks but I think the real killer here is their speed. They are two steps quicker and we're constantly scrambling back to make tackles round their hips which is making their offload game so much more effective. It destroys our defensive structure and they thrive on it. They are afforded so much time on the ball and we're never a threat outside, any play that goes wide usually finishes with a hard line back in. I understand why we play like that, you work with what you've got and our backline is desperately slow.

A successful tournament nonetheless and they can definitely be proud of themselves - especially given the difficult circumstances.

A-Train

Great to get to a final but that’s an absolute hammering. Not many or any positives from any Irish players today.

bluedex

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852364#Comment_120852364

It's a development tournament. Important to keep it in perspective. The Irish players have significantly more room for improvement than the French players, many of whom already play Top 14. The future is bright.

leakyboots

Super French team, not taking the foot off our necks at all. Great achievement for our lads to reach a final, they can be very proud of themselves considering everything that happened throughout the tournament

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852400#Comment_120852400

There's a dynamism with the French carrying that's simply lacking for our lads unfortunately

lawrencesummers

The manner of the defeat and the big difference on the scoreboard is a pity for these players, they dont deserve a beating like this adter they came back and performed in the tournament from the worst sort of adversity and started the final so well.

They have been away from home for a long time and had a chance to win a world cup and the mistakes in this game will linger for sometime.

well played france, the bench made a massive difference to them and dupont might need to be looking over his shoulder in a year or two.

PTH2009

Proud of the lads for getting this far

France truly the better team and deserved winners

Future is bright in Ireland and France

realhorrorshow

Such a shame to have 50 put on us in the final after such an excellent season. Unfortunately, Irish players are always going to be behind their French counterparts at this age, especially a French team as good as that. An excellent Ireland team with surely many future internationals, Irish rugby is in good health. Worryingly, French rugby is even better.