Irish U20s adapting after disjointed Summer Series prep

Richie Murphy will have to wait another year before he finally gets to bring an Ireland U20 team to a World Championship, but their slate of games in this year's 'Summer Series' would appear to be just as tough on paper.

For the third year in a row, the World Rugby U20 Championship has been scrapped due to Covid-19, with more regionalised competitions created in its place before it returns to its original format in 2023.

The 'Summer Series' will see the Six Nations teams, as well as South Africa and Georgia compete in a mini tournament across the next four weeks, with the eight teams split into two pools of four, ensuring each side has three pool games as well as one final play-off round.

From an Irish point of view, it might not match the World Championship in terms of quantity, but with Ireland joined by France, South Africa and England in their pool, it more than makes up for it in terms of quality.

Add in the searing heat of Italy in the summer, and the sizeable target on the back of the Irish jerseys following their Six Nations Grand Slam, and this year's crop of U20s will be in for a major test.

"It is obviously a very tough group and looking at the French squad, they are particularly strong, they are probably even stronger than they were in the Six Nations and they were a real handful in that," said Murphy (below), after naming his 31-man squad on Friday.

"Beating them over there, everyone I talked to said that was the highlight of the Six Nations, even though it was probably the fixture that we didn't play as well in. Some of that was because France did not let us. We have been watching them over the last while, trying to review and set our lads up the best we can to face that.

"The other issue we are going to have is