Ireland boss Roy McCune insists his team approach the Under-25 British Home International Series at Newport ‘free from pressure’.
The Irish have never had their hands on the Joyce Brimble Memorial Trophy and, even though they are not expected to change that trend over the weekend, McCune believes his ‘young guns’ have nothing to fear.
“I want the boys to go out and express themselves – forget about the overall result,” said McCune. “We have some great kids coming through the system – it’s all about development at this level; it’s a learning curve.
“Quite a few of our current squad have already forced their way into the senior panel, Gary Kelly, Alistair Coleman, Darren Atkinson, Simon Colvin and Andrew Duncan. So, that’s a massive plus.”
McCune admits it will be a demanding two days, starting tomorrow morning against England.
“It’s always difficult going in against the might of England and Scotland, while Wales are not far behind,” said McCune.
“They have a massive of talent to choose from and, in fact, have to go through a selection process before naming their respective teams.
“We are not in that position. Last season we were fortunate just to have enough players to compete. Nevertheless, there were a lot of positives to take from our display at Nottingham.
“We have a good squad of players available this time and, indeed, we had some serious selection problems. There were a few boys who didn’t make the squad – they were really unlucky.”
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