Ireland do the double over France this weekend with the U20s gaining a hard-fought bonus point win over France 37-31.
That's 11 wins in a row in the U20s six nations!
That's 11 wins in a row in the U20s six nations!
Rugby Union 23/24 Discussion
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Two absolutely incredible young teams.
I hadn't watched the U20s in three or four years. The level seems to have gone up quite a bit. Very impressive from both teams.
We talk a lot about guys like Farrell and Schmidt, but the work Richie Murphy is doing in bringing a fresh batch of young lads into the fold each year and having them play such an exciting brand of never know you’re beaten rugby is a massive asset to Irish rugby.
Epic match too. Top class rugby. The U20s is such a great wee add-on for the 6Ns. Same fixtures twice over each weekend. Great stuff.
Gleeson is such a beast. The next “big Joe”?
He will get his shot at Munster as well because Coombes is having an off season, the man is a try scoring machine at 8 but has been moved about due to injuries at lock and he clearly got a confidence shock after prendergast made the WC squad over him
Woke up at 2pm had a message from one of the boys tickets are going for 30, I ask where, no response, 2 mins later a completely different buddy asks do I want to go as he has a spare.
anyway the game was meh, some of the atmosphere was piped in, I swear at the end with the Munster chant it just appeared and was deafening from above whilst everyone was talking and leaving.
finally if any stadium location decision is idiotic it’s this one, there is little public transport to the stadium, no parking and it’s a fecking bog it should of been originally built in the north side at the top of Dublin hill by a train station that would’ve been built, why do I mention this I’ve never seen so many strange bounces of a ball, the ground took all the energy out of the ball when it hit it.
Feck… JPR and now the GOAT.
RIP.
RIP.
Wasn't old enough to see him live but the footage especially against the All Blacks is amazing.
Never seen anyone with so much time.
Never seen anyone with so much time.
Effortless, liquid, silky smooth. At times, he looked like he was playing against kids. Even in a fantastic Wales team, he stood out.
Retired at 27
RIP The King.
An absolute giant of the game. A super hero. RIPEffortless, liquid, silky smooth. At times, he looked like he was playing against kids. Even in a fantastic Wales team, he stood out.
Retired at 27
RIP The King.
The haka featuring Leigh Halfpenny
I remember finding this weird at the time. The way Russell could just stand there, with all the time in the world. Wasn’t aware of “the DuPont rule”. Seems a bit mad.
Also completely agree with Lenihan about referee’s coaching players. It’s ok to communicate what he’s seeing at the break down. Has a tackle been made? Or is it a maul? But this constant advice given to players during every part of the game is nuts. They should know the rules and if they break them then they should be penalised.
Yeah, i've always found that strange to the say the least. "Tackler, let go, roll away..." or "hands out, leave it.." etc. etc. often instructed by refs quite audibly to players during matches.
Yup. And telling players who are about to go offside at a ruck to wait. Since when is that part of his job? If the players make a bad decision then penalise them for it.
Do you think it's an instruction made to them by the RFU (or whatever the governing body's called these days) because they don't want games to be littered with an exorbitant amount of stoppages and penalties for infringements? Not that it makes it any better of course, as you say, it's the players' duty to know the rules. Captains can always enquire as to why penalties were given, which could be explained and the captain can go back to the huddle to relay the info to his team to stop it from happening again.
Maybe? I dunno. I’m a bit of a fair weather rugby fan. Only played it in school a very long time ago and don’t watch all that many matches. I’m sure there are people in here much more clued in than me who can answer that!
Yeah, I'm sort of similar/same as well.
It's all part of managing the game for the betterment of the viewing and playing experience. No one is going to watch a game that is littered with penalties. It's unusual to see players or competitors managed by the ref in a sport but it does happen. Eg boxers are told to break, in F1 the stewards pass on punishments mid race etc.
Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a deliberate proactive decision to ref this way. I feel like I've seen an article about it before on RTE a few years ago.
Those ones piss me off because in some games they've already illegal slowed down the ruck and he warns them and then waits for them to respond to his warning rather than just pinging them for the infringment.
Absolutely. Does my head in.
Italy u20s putting it up to Ireland.
Edwin’s little brother has a set of burners for big man.
They nearly made an utter cock of that.
@BeforeKeanetherewasRobson how you feeling about tomorrow? After your fight back against Scotland last week I’m a little bit nervous 
There was no way your man was stopping him. I love that bouncing the tackler before crossing the line.
They did well to dig that out but it was surprising that Italy didn't go for the drop goal when they had that central field position. They seemed to be setting up before going wide and losing it.
Aye, it looked to be the plan. The scores they conceded in the first half were cheap.
But yes, the way he bounced the tackler was a highlight.
Was it bad, yeah? I missed the first hour. I only turned it on when I saw your post.
First half Ireland were dominant but Italy nicked some breakaway tries against the run of play to go in a couple of points up. Second half was very even. Italy totally dominated us in the scrum, which made life hard. We had a scrum in injury time and just needed to get the ball back and kick it out but ended up conceding a penalty. Agonising.
Fair play to Italy though. They were great. They’ve a young winger who’s an absolute beast. Scored two cracking tries and set up another with a sensational offload.
Did you see Edwin’s reaction in the stands?! Great to see.
Thanks. Yeah the 20 mins I saw was quite even and I was worried Italy were going to come through especially before the try. Hopefully, two weeks rest between games for the next two means they continue the winning streak.
Me too a bit, but looking forward to it, always do… it’s like when United play Liverpool. Nervous excitement.@BeforeKeanetherewasRobson how you feeling about tomorrow? After your fight back against Scotland last week I’m a little bit nervous
Think we lose by 8-10, though first try important… might settle us if we get it and could have an outside chance. Got to start well and take the points when on offer… 3/6/9/12.
Could be a tough weekend for a Welsh United fan… especially one who’s married to an English Villa fan…
Hope it’s a good game.