Ireland Under 20 captain Nick McCarthy believes his side are “in a good place” as they look to improve on last year’s fourth place finishes in the RBS Under 20 Six Nations and the Junior World Championship.
McCarthy, one of eight players in the 30-man squad to boast past Six Nations experience, is encouraged by his team’s preparation as the countdown continues on their opening game against Italy in Biella, on Friday.
“There is an expectation that we have to surpass what we did last year. Finishing fourth in the world was great, but we were a bit disappointed to leave for home after a heavy loss to England and a defeat to New Zealand. We’ll be looking to rectify that this year,” he insisted.
“We’ve got a really good squad, with a good bit of experience from last year and loads of new faces bringing in a good bit of talent.
“We had a few tough games over the Christmas period against Munster and Leinster development sides which were good, and we have had a few camps together so we feel we are in a good place going into the game against Italy.”
Ireland will return to Italy four months later for the start of the World Rugby Under 20 Championship - the new name for the Junior World Championship - where they have been drawn with New Zealand, Argentina and Scotland in Pool C.
New Zealand finish third at the JWC 2014 by beating Ireland on home soil.
Ireland play Scotland in the final round of this year’s Under 20 Six Nations, and McCarthy recognises the opportunity to strike an early psychological blow.
However the Leinster scrum-half stresses the need to focus on the here and the now.
“Our goal is to win the Six Nations but it is important we just take it one game at a time. Italy stuck around for a long time before we beat them 18-0 in Athlone last year.
“On a personal level too you don’t want to look too far ahead because all it takes is one injury or one bad performance and you might not get selected.
“That said, it is important to pick up momentum throughout the Six Nations, and we’ll be definitely looking to get a good win against Scotland and put a few doubts in their head going into the World Cup.”
As one of the Ireland squad’s most experienced players, he turns 20 five days after the Scotland game, McCarthy and the likes of IRB Junior Player of the Year 2014 nominee Garry Ringrose will be instrumental in determining the success of new head coach Nigel Carolan’s ‘player power’ philosophy.
Carolan, who replaces Mike Ruddock at the helm, explained: “Looking at the bigger picture, we are trying to prepare players for the professional game so we’ve set out to create an environment where the players are stretched and a little bit uncomfortable and need to lead themselves. As a management team we’ll just try and facilitate that.
“There is an element of risk because we don’t expect them to get things right all of the time, but we expect them to learn from the aspects that don’t go so well.
“When we get to games we don’t want players looking up to the stands and asking what they should do.”
