Wales defeated New Zealand in the other semi-final and Tom de Glanville revealed that he was delighted to have finally turned the tables on their northern hemisphere rivals and looked ahead to the Wales encounter.

The 19-year-old said: "Wales have a really good centre partnership and their forwards can put in a really good shift so I think we will need to muscle them upfront first and it’s going to be played on a 4G pitch so hopefully it’ll be a quicker track than what we were on yesterday.

“Both sides are used to the conditions that we played in yesterday, it was more about which team turned up and wanted it more on the day.”

“We need to try and keep our habits good building into the game and stay on top of our standards. We need to make sure that nothing changes from the last three games and take our confidence through.”

Turn of fortune against Ireland

“We felt like we owed the Irish lads one given that they have beaten us twice this year, so we were really happy to turn them over and it was a great team performance in poor playing conditions.

“We knew at half-time how tight the game was, but we really had to grind it out as it was never going to be a game with a huge score line. To turn them over and win in the manner that we did in the last minute made it even more special and it really shows how far we have come in the tournament given that we had lost to them in the first game.

“We have managed to put some performances together and now we are back on top of them and beating them, so it was good work. The lads were upset by the fact that we couldn’t progress to the top four, so it was our chance to right a wrong.”

Confidence booster

“I feel that we had a much better tactical understanding of Ireland going into the game, we had tidied up a few errors from previous games so that we were improved in those specific areas of the field.”

“We are looking to end the competition on a high, we are looking to win the next game – Wales are a tough side, and after beating New Zealand they are going to be on a high. We know from the Six Nations that we are going to have to be switched on and put a performance in if we want to beat them.”

“The boys were ecstatic to grab the win in the way we did. Tom Willis is a very highly respected member of the squad as well, so it was nice to see him get over and win the game for us. I have seen us lose twice so it was a moment of relief to get one over on the Irish lads and they are a quality side, so it made the win even better."

de Glanville eager to right wrongs against Wales

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