It was great to beat Ireland in the semi-finals last Sunday. In our camp, we knew there was still more for us to give and we hadn’t shown a full reflection of our capabilities. With it being semi-final rugby it brought a lot of nerves and pressure. For me personally it was my first semi-final or knockout match but the messages were beneficial in the week in terms of going back to what we’re good at and sticking to our processes. Ireland men’s team like to move the ball around and that is just the same for Ireland U20s, they are well drilled and like to find space but we had enough to get the better of them.
Preparing for the final, we had a relaxed first training day, walking through our new plays to make sure we got our knowledge up to speed. The second day we ran the plays at pace, had a couple of high intensity sessions but there was no need to hype up the situation because everyone knew what we were walking into in terms of the task at hand against France.
Our analyst Tom Mitchell and team manager Eliza Ullersperger got all of our families to send in good luck messages which was emotional for everyone. It was really nice for the England senior players like Dan Cole and Marcus Smith to add in their own words as well, so it was nice to know we had great support back home.
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