Ireland u20s are Six Nations champions, sealing the crown with a stunning performance in the win over France tonight. Noel McNamara's side showed incredible intensity for the full 80 minutes, and the visitors were unable to deal with them.
Craig Casey put in a stunning performance at scrum half, while Sean French stood in for injured captain David Hawkshaw and put in a super display of his own. However, most of the headlines will go to prop Josh Wycherley, with his two tries the difference on what was a stunning night for Irish rugby in Irish Independent Park.
They now travel to Wales next week within reach of a Grand Slam, and man-of-the-match Wycherley did not bask in the glory of tonight's win for too long, with completing the perfect tournament already at the forefront of his mind:
Man-of-the-match Josh Wycherley on getting past the challenge of an impressive French team as Ireland claimed the Six Nations U20 championship #rterugby pic.twitter.com/hJZoIuBiTx
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) March 8, 2019
Absolutely unbelievable, I can't put it into words really. Credit to France, they came out today and were a very physical team. I'm really proud of the lads for sticking in there with the physical battle it was, but wa came away with the win.
We have a massive task ahead next week. We started it, and we want to finish it strong...
Credit to the pack. Every collision we just got off the line and put the French on the back foot. But credit to France, they kept going and they were there until the last minute...
I'm tired after that now alright, but we are going to get back to Dublin on Monday and get ready to go again and go over to Wales.
Ireland could be without scrum half Craig Casey for that one, after he was substituted due to injury with 10 minutes to go. Hopefully the Munster youngster will make a full recover in time for the Welsh trip.
Ireland will enter the game as favourites, but as Wycherley indicated, they certainly won't be taking anything for granted.
