Ireland U20s Continue On Winning Ways

The Ireland Under-20s defeated defending champions France with a four-try performance at Dubarry Park on Friday night to maintain their winning start to this year’s 6 Nations campaign.

On making his U20s 6 Nations debut Munster academy player Stephen Fitzgerald, joined Jack Owens, Billy Dardis and Garry Ringrose in touching down in an action-packed match.

Key to it all was the performance of out-half Ross Byrne, who had an unblemished kicking return of 17 points and engineered a number of Ireland's attacking openings.

A spellbinding first half saw converted tries from wingers Owens and Fitzgerald sandwich an equally sparkling Sékou Macalou effort, with Nigel Carolan's young side building a 20-10 half-time lead.

Ireland had great variety to their game and a late penalty from man-of-the-match Byrne gave them a 10-point buffer, just reward for their attacking adventure and structure.

France, who were on a seven-match winning streak in the U-20 Championship, leaked an early try to Dardis on the resumption but Thomas Ramos converted a Michaël Simutoga touchdown and added a penalty to put seven points between the teams.

However, with Jeremy Loughman and Lorcan Dow carrying the fight up front, Ireland replied with a steadying 72nd minute penalty from Byrne and Ringrose ran in a classy intercept try from the restart to seal the result.

From a Munster point of view academy scrumhalf Jack Cullen was introduced for the last five minutes.

TIME LINE: 6 minutes – Ireland try: Jack Owens – 5-0; conversion: Ross Byrne – 7-0; 11 minutes – Ireland penalty: Ross Byrne – 10-0; 16 mins – France penalty: Thomas Ramos – 10-3; 25 mins – France try: Sékou Macalou – 10-8; conversion: Thomas Ramos – 10-10; 34 mins – Ireland try: Stephen Fitzgerald – 15-10; conversion: Ross Byrne – 17-10; 40 mins – Ireland penalty: Ross Byrne – 20-10;Half-time – Ireland 20 France 10; 43 mins – Ireland try: Billy Dardis – 25-10; conversion: Ross Byrne – 27-10; 49 mins – France try: Michaël Simutoga – 27-15; conversion: Thomas Ramos – 27-17; 57 mins – France penalty: Thomas Ramos – 27-20; 72 mins – Ireland penalty: Ross Byrne – 30-20; 73 mins – Ireland try: Garry Ringrose – 35-20; conversion: Ross Byrne – 37-20; Full-time – Ireland 37 France 20

Ireland U20s: Billy Dardis (UCD/Leinster); Jack Owens (Queen's University Belfast/Ulster), Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster), Sam Arnold (Ballynahinch/Ulster), Stephen Fitzgerald (Shannon/Munster); Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster), Nick McCarthy (UCD/Leinster) (capt); Jeremy Loughman (UCD/Leinster), Zack McCall (Queen's University Belfast/Ulster), Oisin Heffernan (Terenure College/Leinster), David O'Connor (St. Mary's College/Leinster), Alex Thompson (Queen's University Belfast/Ulster), Josh Murphy (UCD/Leinster), Rory Moloney (Buccaneers/Connacht), Lorcan Dow (Queen's University Belfast/Ulster).
Replacements used: Conan O'Donnell (Sligo/NUIG/Connacht) for Heffernan, Nick Timoney (St. Mary's College/Leinster) for Moloney (both 57 mins), Fergal Cleary (Lansdowne/Leinster) for Arnold (63), Adam McBurney (Ballymena/Ulster) for McCall, Cian Romaine (Buccaneers/Connacht) for O'Connor (both 64), Jack Cullen (Shannon/Munster) for McCarthy, Michael Lagan (Ballymena/Ulster) for Loughman, Joey Carbery (UCD/Leinster) for Owens for (all 76).

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)