Ireland U20s made it two from two in the World Rugby Championship when they beat Scotland by 24 points to 20 on Saturday. Ulster hooker, Zack McCall, played a major part in both matches, starting the first game against Argentina and coming on as a replacement against the Scots. Up next for Ireland is a pool decider against New Zealand, a seemingly daunting task - but McCall and the rest of the team are approaching the game full of confidence:
“We definitely had a point to prove against Scotland,” he says. “We concentrated on our set piece a bit more as that was one of our weaknesses against them in the 6 Nations. We fronted up well and our backs took care of the scoring. We got that good win against Scotland and the momentum is building well towards New Zealand.
“It would definitely be something for the history books to be one of the first Irish teams to beat New Zealand, but at the end of the day they are just another team. England has won this tournament a few times and we came close to beating them in the 6 Nations. It’s just the small margins that it comes down to. If we get our one per-centers right we could do very well against them.”
Despite being part of a team that has 100% record in the tournament, McCall believes there is more to come from him in a green jersey:
“I still don’t think that I have shown my best yet,” says the 20 year old. “I am constantly trying to push myself to do my best on the pitch. It’s going well. I am just delighted to be getting my first taste of international rugby. It’s a great experience and a great learning curve as well. The selection could go either way. It’s just important that we come together as a group – not just the 23 but the whole 28 that are here.
“At the start of the tournament we said that every game is a cup final. If we are going to do it then we have to win all our games. We can’t go into the New Zealand game looking to be the best runner up. We have to go in wanting to really win the tournament. If we can get a result against New Zealand then I think we can take on anybody after that.”