Ireland U20 head coach Richie Murphy has spoken of his admiration for his players in how they've responded to the most challenging week of their young careers.
Tragedy hit the Irish camp on Monday when Munster coach Greig Oliver, whose son Jack was in the Ireland squad, died in a paragliding accident in Cape Town.
It came just over a day after the news of the sudden deaths Andrew O'Donnell and Max Wall in Greece, the St Michael's College students who were known to several members of the squad.
In spite of such a difficult 48 hours, the Irish players composed themselves to beat Fiji 47-27 on Tuesday to book their place in the semi-finals of the World Rugby U20 Championship, where they will take on hosts South Africa this Sunday.
"Extremely, I was extremely proud of these guys way before that happening," Murphy said of his players.
The Ireland coach has made nine changes to his side for Sunday's game with the Baby Boks at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town, with Sam Prendergast, Ruadhan Quinn and Gus McCarthy all brought back in to start.
And Murphy says he's been impressed with how they reacted in recent days.
"I thought, like everything that's happened to them over the course of the year, they take everything in their stride. They've the ability to deal with disappointment and upset, and still be able to go out and put in a performance [against Fiji].
"It definitely wasn't the performance we would have wanted, but Fiji on a dry track are a handful for any team. They scored 37 points against Australia. I thought the guys showed great character getting through that," Murphy (below) added.
South Africa are the last team to beat Ireland at U20 level, winning 33-24 when the sides met at the Summer Series a year ago.
It's been a mixed campaign for the South Africans, who recovered from their shock defeat to Italy in the pool stage to creep through to the semi-finals with a 24-16 win against Argentina.
And Murphy says his players are braced for the most physical game they've faced so far this season.
"The team that we've picked there, we feel that we can play a number of different of ways with that team. When the weather became pretty poor against Australia, we proved we could put it up our jumper a bit and maul, play field position and squeeze them.
"South Africa's pack are big and strong, it's a typical South African team with plenty of speed in the backline and loads of elusive runners. Up front, you have to get at least parity to be able to be in the game.
"We picked what we would see to be our biggest front five. Our back row, with the way things have gone with suspension and other things is probably the best back row we have available to us at this stage," Murphy added.
