‘The whole team and even the coaching staff, we made mistakes on the day’
DESPITE COMING into the game off the back of a 16-point defeat on home soil, Ireland U20s assistant coach Ian Keatley believes it was important to resist the temptation to make wholesale changes for tomorrow’s second round meeting with Scotland in the Six Nations Championship.
From the side that lost out 19-3 to defending champions England in Cork’s Virgin Media Park last Thursday week, the Irish coaching team have made just three alterations for a Saturday night showdown against the Scots at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh (kick-off 7.45pm).
Two of these changes are enforced with Derry Moloney and Alex Usanov both ruled out this weekend through injury — the latter is set to miss out on the remainder of the tournament after being withdrawn in the opening quarter of the English game.
The addition of Gene O’Leary Kareem to the Irish midfield was more of a tactical decision than the inclusion of Daniel Green and Billy Bohan for the above-mentioned duo, but Keatley stressed the rest of the side that featured against England deserve a second chance to impress.
“Of course, we want to win, but you have to remember they’re U20. Most of them are 19, they’re just developing. It [the England game] is probably the first time they played in an arena like that with 9,000. It’s probably the first time they came against a line speed such as England and a lot of those English players play in the Premiership,” Keatley said in a video call to the Irish media yesterday.
“This is their first time and a lot of us, the whole team and even the coaching staff, we made mistakes on the day. You have to give them another chance to help them learn and try and rectify what they did.
“I think if we made drastic changes, it would be the wrong thing for us as a team and the cohesion. To give them that confidence that we trust them, to go out again and try and correct the wrongs from last week. I think it’s very important for them to develop not just for this Six Nations, but their whole career.”
Whereas Ireland saw a run of 15 games without defeat in the U20s Six Nations coming to an end on the Leeside eight days ago — stretching back to the opening round of the 2022 Championship — last Friday’s 22-10 loss to Italy in Hive Stadium was Scotland’s ninth successive reversal in the tournament.
Additionally, the Scots have recorded just one win from their last 21 games in the U20s Six Nations and have picked up the wooden spoon in three of the past four Championships at this age grade.
Yet despite recent history being against them, Keatley is anticipating a difficult battle in the Scottish capital tomorrow night.
“We have a tough challenge against Scotland. They’re actually a very good team. They like to move the ball around. They’re actually quite clever tactically. Their 12 [Kerr Yule], he’s a very good player. A very strong carrier. Very good pack, very good scrum. We’re under no illusion, Scotland are going to be very good this week.”
Having initially come on board for last year’s Championship when current Ulster supremo Richie Murphy was still at the helm, Keatley is in the middle of his second Six Nations campaign as attack and backs coach with the Ireland U20s.
After learning his trade to a certain extent for the 2024 edition of the tournament, the former Munster and Connacht out-half now feels very much at ease in a set-up that is currently spearheaded by Neil Doak — who previously coached Keatley on an Emerging Ireland team that won the IRB Nations Cup in 2014.
“I think the first few weeks of last year’s campaign, Richie just said: ‘First few weeks, just find your feet. Just feel comfortable to talk, whenever you talk. Come in and then we’ll start giving you more and more responsibility,’” Keatley added.
“By the time we got to the World Cup, I felt I was so comfortable with the environment and rolling into this year, I feel very good in this environment. Love working with these guys, these U20s. They’re all 30, 35 lads just literally willing to learn. They’ll literally listen to anything you say and they’re so eager.
“All we want as a coaching staff is for them to put their best foot forward and show their true potential. That’s all they want as well. When we give them messages, they just want to learn and they want to get better. It’s a really great environment to be in.”