Ireland coach Richie Murphy says his side are "in a good place" going into their World Rugby Under-20 Championship opener in South Africa on Saturday.

They will then play Australia on 29 June and Fiji on 4 July.

"We will bring a mentality that we can compete at the very top level. In terms of fitness and the standard of the squad we are well off," said Murphy.

"The advantage of this group is that out of the 23 players involved in our last game against England, 22 have travelled to this tournament and a few are back from injury.

"A lot of our players don't have as much experience of playing at a senior level compared to some of the other teams, but we have built a culture and are a very tight-knit group with guys who are massively keen to put their best foot forward on the world stage.

"I think we are in a good place in that regard."

The 2023 World Rugby U20 Championship is the first edition of the junior World Cup since 2019.

The three pool winners and the best runner-up will advance to the semi-finals.

'Something is going to have to give'

The fact the Australian and Fijian squads are something of an unknown quantity poses a particular challenge to Murphy and his young charges.

"It's definitely difficult, the last competitive game we played was against England so we've had quite a good look at them and there are a lot of familiar names on their teamsheet going into this match," he added.

"You are always excited to play England but you're never happy that you're playing them. It's a challenge and there's a tight rivalry between the guys.

"In some ways it's better to start against England and get a feel for Australia before we play them, and in the case of Fiji too, until we see them play we don't really know what we are facing.

"It's a tough group containing four teams with aspirations of going further into the competition, so something is going to have to give somewhere."

'We'll have to adjust our gameplan'

Saturday's match is likely to be played on a heavy pitch, something which is influencing Ireland's preparations in the build-up to the encounter with England.

"A heavy pitch won't work in anyone's favour, we are used to wind and rain, but none of our Six Nations games were played on heavy pitches, they were played on artificial surfaces," said Murphy.

"Games like that tend to be played quick and we like to play quick, so we'll have to adjust our game plan according to that.

"We've looked really hard at our game and found areas we needed to improve.

"We've had a number of camps leading into this, we don't have a huge amount of game time under our belt and that's probably one disadvantage we have.

"We've highlighted some areas, worked hard on those, so let's hope that reaps dividends on Saturday."