Willie Faloon: 'I wouldn’t have done an awful lot differently'

Defeat when a team hasn’t performed fully is the worst kind of loss. That was the ordeal Ireland were put through in Cape Town on Sunday, oscillating from a highly competitive first-half effort in a World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final that finished with them only trailing England 22-20 to not firing a single shot in a second period where they were held scoreless and drably lost 31-20.

The opening period was an end-to-end affair similar to the 32-all and 34-all draws that materialised when these two countries most recently faced each other at this age-grade level, a Six Nations draw at Bath 18 weeks ago and a Championship draw in Paarl 13 months back.

That parity was shattered at the DHL Stadium. Ireland came to the fight without a scrum and that vulnerability – they were penalised on six occasions – became too much of a weakness to paper over.

England fielded with five of the same pack of forwards that started at The Rec in March, but Ireland had just three repeat selections and this lack of depth had a limiting impact on what they could do to counter the English power over a full 80 minutes.

“Certainly the game kind of died off after half-time,” agreed Ireland boss Willie Faloon, chatting post-game to RugbyPass following a contest in which skipper Brian Gleeson was the standout with his 18 tackles and 10 carries at No8.

“There was a lot of pillar to post, a few stoppages for injuries and stuff like that. It was hard for us to keep our energy and to keep pushing further. First half we had a couple of nice chances, played some nice rugby and did well.

“The problem is the energy was out of the game. We were looking to keep the tempo high and move the ball around but we just didn’t get the chance to do that. They killed it off fairly well.

“That’s what we spoke about in the circle after; we didn’t perform the way we wanted. There were a few aspects of our game we weren’t as happy with. We’ll have a look at that. We are in another game next Friday (versus New Zealand in the third place play-off), so we have got to dust ourselves off quickly, turn it around and put in a performance.”

Faloon had minimal regrets. “Like I said to the coaches, we were really well prepared. I wouldn’t have done an awful lot differently. It’s a tough competition and we just didn’t maybe the get bounce of the ball.”

What did he make of Ireland’s heavily penalised scrum? “It’s something I probably don’t know as much around. You need a set-piece that can stand up to it and I suppose there were too many on that side of it.

“The big thing is I thought we were really well prepared but they have got a very good scrum and we knew that. We had seen it throughout the Six Nations, seen it at the World Cup. They are a top quality side,” he said.

He went on to rue the one excellent second half chance that got away on Ireland, England full-back Ioan Jones coming up with a crucial intercept when there were still only two points between the teams.

“Small margins. We were looking good for a score and we throw an intercept, a few little things like that don’t go your way, a bounce of a ball. It is U20s rugby, guys do make mistakes sort of thing but we hope to get a bounce out of the next week.”

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