Ireland captain Gus McCarthy says his side will have to improve even further if they're to break new ground and become World Rugby U20 champions for the very first time.
The Irish U20s will take on France in Friday's Junior World Cup final in Cape Town, with yesterday's clinical 31-12 win against hosts South Africa seeing them become just the second Ireland team to reach the decider of the tournament.
It's been a remarkable run for Richie Murphy's side, who have followed up their back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slam successes with a run to the world final, a competition Irish sides have generally struggled in.
Impressively, Ireland have shown they can win games in a variety of different ways.
They largely dominated the Six Nations earlier this year, racking up high scores, and their 53 tries in nine games this season shows their willingness to attack.
However, their wins against Australia and most recently South Africa have shown they can win games in the trenches.
Against the Junior Wallabies, they were more restrained on a soft, heavy pitch, and played the conditions expertly before pulling away as the game wore on.
Likewise, they showed real maturity in their semi-final win against the Baby Boks.
While they eventually proved far too good for the hosts, their 7-0 half time lead was undeniably against the run of play, with Ireland having spent the majority of the first half defending, before striking with a James Nicholson try on 37 minutes.
"Starting off, that defence we put in was just unbelievable," captain Gus McCarthy (above) said after Sunday's win.
"The performance the boys put in, not everything went how we wanted it to go but we stuck in and fought really hard for each other. I'm just really proud of the boys."
McCarthy echoed the thoughts of his coach Murphy, who said the game was won by their defence in the opening half.
And he added that the sight of South Africa out-half Jean Smith resorting to a dropgoal attempt with the final play of the first half was a huge psychological boost for he and his team-mates as they held onto their 7-0 lead.
He said: "How well we defended, it shows that they were going for a dropgoal [at the end of the half]. It's a credit to the coaching of the last few months, that we really back our defence and defended well, stayed high and fought for each other out there."
It was certainly the most ruthless performance from Ireland in the championship, who added three more tries in the second half, with a late South African score putting only a small dent in the margin of victory.
And while Ireland never looked troubled after moving 14-7 ahead on 50 minutes, McCarthy says they'll need to be more rounded across the full 80 minutes when they take on the French on Friday.
"I'm not too sure it was the most complete performance to be honest, I don't think it was," the Leinster player added.
"We've got a few things to work on for the final, but we're delighted, we stuck in and worked really hard for each other.
"We just spoke at half time about how frantic we were and just weren't playing the game we wanted to. In the second half we came out and were just a lot more focused on what we'd planned on doing all week.
"As you could see, it worked. We scored plenty of excellent tries in the second half, and just took the game into our hands. It worked, and we're delighted."
While Ireland have gone unbeaten, and scored at least four tries in every game so far, France have gone one better, winning each of their games comprehensively including a 35-14 hammering of New Zealand in the pool stage, and putting 52 points on England in the semi-final on Sunday.
It's also likely to be a much-changed French side from the one Ireland beat in a 33-31 Six Nations thriller in February, with just seven of that starting line-up also in the first XV for Sunday's semi-final win.
By comparison, Ireland's side will likely contain 11 or 12 of those who also started that game at Musgrave Park. France have also added the considerable power of Posolo Tuilagi (below), the 6ft 4in and 149kg wrecking ball of a lock and the latest model off the famous Tuilagi production line.
Whatever happens in Friday's final, Ireland's U20 season has been resoundingly positive, with a Six Nations Grand Slam already in the bag and a shot at winning a first ever world title.
Speaking after yesterday's semi-final, Bafana Nhleko said he wasn't surprised to see how Ireland outlasted his own side, given the competitiveness of the Six Nations.
Results in the tournament would support that narrative, with Ireland, France and England occupying three of the four semi-final spots.
And Ireland coach Murphy agrees that the quality of the Six Nations has primed his players well.
"These guys are obviously young men coming out either one or two years out of school. The Six Nations gives them an opportunity to play for a really high level competition and I think competition is what really helps these guys develop, because they learn then," he said.
"I suppose over the course of the season these guys have played five Six Nations and four matches in this - 10 top class matches [including the final] with a couple of warm-up games thrown in. It gives you a great opportunity to develop that group as a team and as individuals.
"We come from a country with four different professional teams, so to try bond those guys together is actually quite easy, but it's a really good part of what we do in Irish rugby."
