Ireland U20 48-33 Wales U20

Ireland recovered from a slow start to chalk up their third win in a row and leave them with a chance to claim the U20 Triple Crown when they host Scotland in Cork next weekend.

Andrew Browne’s side ran in seven tries in an entertaining clash where Wales crossed for five tries in an open game.

Wales, seeking a first win in Cork on their fourth visit, made a brilliant start and raced into a 12-0 lead after just eight minutes but Ireland didn’t panic and by half-time had the try bonus point in the bag and control of the game.

A try from hooker Tom Howe after a good maul from a lineout laid down an early mark for Wales and when No.8 Evan Minto was stopped short after an intercept and hacked kick, winger Tom Bowen pounced and outhalf Lloyd Lucas converted to make it 12-0.

But Ireland, with Josh Neill, their South African born and Irish-qualified flanker leading the way up front and fullback Noah Byrne also continuing his great campaign, got control of the match.

They got back in contention when another player having an impressive tournament, winger Daniel Ryan, finished off a flowing move involving scrum-half Christopher Barrett, centre Ron Carney, outhalf Tom Wood and fullback Byrne.

Neill continued his run of scoring in each game when he squeezed over from a tapped penalty when Welsh centre Osian Darwin-Lewis was binned for a deliberate knock-on as centre James O’Leary was about to collect and score from a couple of metres. Wood’s conversion tied the game at 12-12.

Ireland outscored Wales 14-0 in the second quarter, getting another try when they had the extra man with Ryan skipping past half a dozen defenders before his Connacht teammate Diarmaid O’Connell collected short of the line to score.

And they wrapped up the try bonus point five minutes from the interval when scrumhalf Barrett sniped over after another good maul from the pack. Wood’s third conversion gave them a 26-12 interval lead.

Hooker Lee Fitzpatrick crossed inside a minute of the restart after a penalty to the right corner and while Wales struck for a couple of tries when Ireland loosehead Max Doyle was in the bin, Ryan intercepted to run from five metres from his own line to score at the other end and replacement hooker Dunn Maguire got their seventh try 13 minutes from the end.

Wales never gave up and replacement outhalf Charlie O’Shea opted to put the game to bed with a penalty seven minutes from time which put them more than two scores ahead after another impressive display.

Ireland: Noah Byrne (James O’Dwyer 71); Derry Moloney, Rob Carney, James O’Leary (Johnny O’Sullivan 62), Daniel Ryan; Tom Wood (Charlie O’Shea 45), Christopher Barrett; Max Doyle (Christian Foley 59), Lee Fitzpatrick, Sami Bishti (c) (Blake McClean 67); Joe Finn, Dylan McNeice (Donnacha McGuire 68); Josh Neill, Ben Blaney (Foley 52-59, Bill Hayes 59), Diarmaid O’Connell.

Wales: Rhys Cummings; Dylan Scott, Osian Darwin-Lewis (Bailey Cutts 72), Steffan Emanuel, Tom Bowen; Lloyd Lucas (Carwyn Leggatt-Jones 49), Siôn Davies (Carter Pritchard 72); George Tuckley (George Leyland 63), Tom Howe (Oscar Thomas 72), Jac Pritchard (Yestyn Cook 58); Luke Evans (Oscar Rees 69), Osian Williams; Deian Gwynne, Caio James, Evan Minto (Dom Kossuth 25).

Referee: Kevin Balley (France).