Doak demands his U20s find a ruthless streak in Cork duel with French
Ireland U20s head coach Neil Doak has called on his side to be more clinical on their return to Virgin Media Park against France in the Six Nations Championship tomorrow night (kick-off 8pm).
Despite having a number of attacking opportunities when facing England at the Leeside venue in the opening round of the tournament on January 30, a first-half penalty from Sam Wisniewski was the only score that Ireland recorded in a 19-3 defeat to the defending champions. A second-round trip to Scotland did see them register five tries in an eventual 33-15 victory, while Henry Walker and Eoghan Smyth both crossed the whitewash over the course of their clash with Wales in Cardiff on February 21.
Yet Ireland couldn’t finish off a series of additional attacks in the latter game and ultimately fell to a 20-12 reversal. This latest result leaves them fourth in the standings and Doak acknowledged his troops will need to possess a ruthless streak if they are to overcome the challenge of France.
“What I explained to them is, we have to be a little more clinical. We’ve had 40 entries into the opposition ‘22’. France have had 26, England have had 34. We’re actually doing some really good stuff. We just need to be a little bit more ruthless and be clinical in that area of the field,” Doak remarked yesterday in a video call.
“We’ve unfortunately dropped the ball three times going over the line and been held up six times. A few other times we’ve tried to explain to them, if we made one more pass or if we had just been a little bit more patient in those pick and goes, that we score tries and the three games could have a different dynamic so far.”
In the wake of that eight-point loss to Wales, Doak has opted to make five changes to his starting line-up for the visit of second place France to Cork.
UCC’s Gene O’Leary Kareem comes in at outside centre in place of Connor Fahy, while Leinster duo Mikey Yarr and Alex Mullan are added to the front-row instead of Henry Walker and Tom McAllister.
Of even greater interest is the inclusion of a brand-new half-back pairing in the shape of Tom Wood and Will Wootton. Whereas Wootton is the younger brother of former Munster and Connacht back Alex, Wood is the son of Ireland, Munster and British & Irish Lions legend Keith Wood.
Although he stressed that the aforementioned Wisniewski and Clark Logan will have a part to play off the bench, Doak is happy to give Wood and Wootton an opportunity to showcase their talents from the word go on the Leeside.
“It’s giving the other half-backs this week a chance to start. Because it is a slightly different dynamic starting a game than coming off the bench. Trying to steer the team in the right direction for the first three-quarters of the game. Then hopefully we’ll see how the game progresses and then make the changes accordingly,” Doak added.