McCann Hopes Cork Support Helps Ireland Under-20s Kick On

Ireland Under-20 captain David McCann hopes another vocal Cork crowd will drive his side on as they bid to make it two-from-two in the Under-20 Six Nations against Wales at Irish Independent Park tonight (kick-0ff 7.15pm).

Noel McNamara’s charges got the defence of their Championship crown up and running in emphatic fashion last week, running in six tries against Scotland at their Cork home, but while there were many positive strands to the performance there were also areas for improvement.

After another week in camp and just two changes to their starting XV for the round 2 clash, Ireland will hope for greater cohesion in both attack and defence against the Welsh, who arrive in Cork intent on bouncing back from their home defeat to Italy last time out.

For McCann, the focus this week has been on fine-tuning all aspects of their performance.

“It was a great start, it was exactly what we wanted and we got the five points, but it was scrappy and we’ve a few things to work on,” the Ulster Academy back rower told IrishRugby.ie.

“We’re hoping to bring that in against Wales. They’re definitely going to be sore after their first game, a defeat to Italy, so we’re expecting a reaction and we’re ready for it.

“We talked about it, we didn’t really get into our flow against Scotland so that’s something we’re looking to get into this week and we know we can really kick on and score more points.”

With another big crowd expected at Irish Independent Park, McCann said last week’s atmosphere helped to drive the players on.

“For a lot of people, it was their first experience of such a big crowd and it shocked them, just the noise and how much it adds to their game,” he added. “It would be great to get a big crowd out again this week.

“People had asked me before what it meant to me to lead the team out and I didn’t really know until I led them out last week in front of that crowd. When you hear that sort of noise, you get that feeling you wouldn’t really get in many other circumstances so I’m really looking forward to doing it again.

“It’s a tight turnaround but we’re 100% confident we’ll do it.”

Tickets for tonight’s game are available to buy on Ticketmaster.ie. Click here to read the match preview.