Nothing has come easy for teenagers in Ireland over the last two years but the absence of representative rugby hasn't held the latest batch of Ireland Under-20s back, it seems.
Covid-19 restrictions meant that many underage and junior teams did not get the benefit of moving through the representative ranks as they would have done previously.
Prior to the pandemic, graduates to the U20s would likely have seen action with current team-mates at provincial youths, schools and other underage grades and had a chance to develop some level of understanding and coherence.
However, Ireland's opening gambit in the Under-20s Six Nations, a 53-5 win over Wales, appears to have made light of that fact.
"[Just] how quickly the lads have gelled as a group and worked really hard for each other," replied forwards coach Jimmy Duffy when asked what pleased him most about the team’s performance.
"We wanted to play with a certain intensity in the game and have been building nicely towards that all through Christmas.
"It's been tough on this group, in particular, having not played any rugby at competitive level since they were at school.
"Covid being Covid, it has curtailed that development. To see the speed that lads played with in attack and defence was really pleasing."
Richie Murphy’s side ran in eight tries in a convincing victory that sets them up nicely for Friday night’s clash against France in Stade Maurice David in Aix-en Provence (8pm).
On the subject of how they have been able to play with such cohesion without competitive match practice, Duffy, who spent seven years as forwards coach with Connacht, said: "It’s probably something that Richie has said from the outset, he wanted the lads to compete throughout the week.
"Whether that be in gym or in training or on the pitch, so when we do get on-field, the tempo is really high and if you are not at the requisite level you will be found out fairly quickly.
"There were quite a lot of mistakes in the early part of the week but they are mistakes for the right reasons so lads are training at a high tempo and that’s what we want to prepare for with France coming up.
"I won’t be sharing too much necessarily [about areas we are targetting] but we are working out fairly quickly what we are good at on both sides of the ball and for us it’s to get back to that as quickly as possible.
"That’s our true north. There are aspects of the game we like to play with tempo and other aspects we like to play with more control. At the moment the lads are picking the right choices.
"It was really pleasing Friday night to see that coming in front of a great crowd [of 7,289] in Cork."
Aside from not being exposed to as much rugby as they would have been in normal times, this current crop have also had to deal with Covid restrictions outside of rugby.
It’s wholly unnatural for young men of 18 and 19 to lose out in this way but Duffy says they are, within all the relevant guidelines, enjoying their down time in camp.
"They are being really creative," Duffy (above) told RTÉ Sport.
"There are certain things they are not allowed to do, so for inside with meetings it’s masks on, all the usual distancing and protocols.
"But around the team room they are active around playing pool and darts and God knows what else. Some of the stuff I probably can’t [say] on air but they are being creative.
"You have to make time for [enjoyment] because being involved in any Six Nations, you’ve got six to eight weeks in each others’ pockets so you have to make an effort to get on with people and get to know them.
"After the second [training] camp the tables started to break up from the provinces and they started merging.
"Now they are in their Irish gear, things like that make a huge difference.
"In fairness, there are no cliques at the moment that I've seen. If there are they are fined accordingly so they try and break that up as quick as they can."
Follow France U20s v Ireland U20s (Friday 8pm) via our live blog on rte.ie/sport.
