McCarthy: Improvements needed for Ireland U20s in final v France

Ireland captain Gus McCarthy says his side will have to improve even further if they're to break new ground and become World Rugby U20 champions for the very first time.

The Irish U20s will take on France in Friday's Junior World Cup final in Cape Town, with yesterday's clinical 31-12 win against hosts South Africa seeing them become just the second Ireland team to reach the decider of the tournament.

It's been a remarkable run for Richie Murphy's side, who have followed up their back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slam successes with a run to the world final, a competition Irish sides have generally struggled in.

Impressively, Ireland have shown they can win games in a variety of different ways.

They largely dominated the Six Nations earlier this year, racking up high scores, and their 53 tries in nine games this season shows their willingness to attack.

However, their wins against Australia and most recently South Africa have shown they can win games in the trenches.

Against the Junior Wallabies, they were more restrained on a soft, heavy pitch, and played the conditions expertly before pulling away as the game wore on.

Likewise, they showed real maturity in their semi-final win against the Baby Boks.

While they eventually proved far too good for the hosts, their 7-0 half time lead was undeniably against the run of play, with Ireland having spent the majority of the first half defending, before striking with a James Nicholson try on 37 minutes.

"Starting off, that defence we put in was just unbelievable," captain Gus McCarthy (above) said after Sunday's win.

"The performance the boys put in, not everything went how we wanted it to go but we stuck in and fought really hard for each other. I'm just really proud of the boys."

McCarthy