Well, it was certainly a surprise for me that Ireland U20’s managed to turn form around and record a rather comfortable 35 – 21 win against their Welsh counterparts this morning in New Zealand.

It was a feisty match that saw Ireland’s Peter Dooley and Alex Wootton and Wales’ Jack Dixon all yellow-carded but Ireland held it together to pull away in the second half.

Ireland raced into a 14 point lead with a 4th minute try from Rory Burke and an 11th minute try from Garry Ringrose, both converted by Ross Byrne.

Wales hit back with a try from Tyler Morgan, converted by Angus O’Brien before Byrne pushed the score out to 7 – 17 with a 24th minute penalty.

Wales enjoyed the better of the second quarter and their cause was helped with a yellow card for Dooley on the 30th minutes and the pressure resulted on a late penalty try, converted by O’Brien on the stroke of half time, giving a score of 14 – 17 in Ireland favour as the teams changed ends.

Ireland received their second yellow card with Wootton walking within a minute of the restart and Wales took advantage for James Benjamin to cross for their third score, to take a 21 – 17 lead, following O’Brien’s conversion.

However from then on in it was all Ireland as Ringrose crossed for his second score minutes later. Byrne added the conversion and two penalties before Cian Kelleher grabbed a late bonus point try to give Ireland a comfortable 35 -21 win and a vital 5 points.

WALES U20: Ashley Evans, Tyler Morgan, Steffan Hughes (C), Jack Dixon, Joshua Adams, Angus O’Brien, Luc Jones, Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, Nicky Thomas, Joe Davies, Rory Thornton, Olly Cracknell, James Benjamin, Will Boyde. Replacements: Afon Bagshaw, Ethan Davies, Tom Williams, Luke Garrett, Scott Otten, Callum Lewis, Scott Andrews, Scott Matthews.

IRELAND 20: Cian Kelleher, Ciaran Gaffney, Garry Ringrose, Dan Goggin, Alex Wootton, Ross Byrne, Nick McCarthy, Peter Dooley, Max Abbott, Rory Burke, Darragh Moloney, Ross Molony, Peadar Timmins, Frankie Taggart, Jack O’Donoghue. Replacements: Dylan Donnellan, Denis Coulson, Oisin Heffernan, Josh Murphy, Diarmaid Dee, Ryan Foley, Conor McKeon, Harrison Brewer.