Head coach Richie Murphy says Ireland will have to adjust their gameplan accordingly to deal with some soft weather conditions at the World Rugby U20 Championships in South Africa.

The Six Nations Grand Slam winners get their Pool B campaign underway against England on Saturday at the Paarl Gymnasium, just outside Cape Town.

The squad arrived in South Africa on Tuesday, but preparations for Saturday's opener against England have been far from ideal, with torrential rain on the western cape making their training pitch in Hamilton 'practically unplayable', according to the head coach.

"We did a very light run on it on Wednesday, which was way below that standard that Junior World Championships should be training in," Murphy said.

"Today we got a decent run out, we got a new pitch and are in a good place now."

Ireland's meeting with England is the second of three games to be played at the Paarl venue on Saturday, with the teams unable to train at the ground on Friday in order to protect the surface.

"It's going to be interesting to see how it holds up. We've had a member of our staff at the pitch and he says it's in good condition. We'll go there with our kickers tomorrow and get a feel for it."

Having played four of their five Six Nations games this season on artificial pitches, the soft conditions in Paarl will likely impact Ireland's ability to play their preferred style of game, something Murphy says they will simply have to adjust towards.

"I don't think it will work in anyone's favour. Heavy pitches won't work in anyone's favour really.

"We're used to playing in a bit of wind and rain but as you say that, none of our Six Nations games were played in rain and heavy pitches. Most of them were played on artificial surfaces, so games tend to be quick. We like to play quick. It's a soft pitch, so we'll have to adjust our game plan a little bit according to that," he added.

The Ireland boss has been able to name a settled squad for Saturday's meeting with England, making just two changes from the starting XV that beat the English 36-24 at Musgrave Park in March.

And while most of the Irish squad are yet to gain senior experience with their provinces, Murphy says the lack of experience is offset by their familiarity with one another.

"Our group this year probably has the advantage that out of the 23 players that played against England in the last game, 22 of those guys were available to travel, and a few other guys are coming back from injury as well. We're in a good place in relation to the fitness and standards of the squad.

"If you look at it, we'll have a lot less senior experience than a lot of other teams. Going into the Six Nations we only had Ruadhan Quinn who had played URC. After that, Conor [O'Tighearnaigh] played down in South Africa with Leinster, Sam [Prendergast] got a couple of runs with Leinster. We still don't have massive experience in relation to that.

"What we have is a very tight-knit team, guys who were massively keen on really putting their best foot forward on what is the world stage. We're in a good place in that regard."

With Covid-19 cancelling the U20 world championship for the last three years, the 2023 competition will be the first since 2019, with Ireland looking to improve on a poor recent record, finishing ninth, eleventh and eighth in the last three runnings.

The lack of a global competition in recent seasons means that there is very little analysis available on Ireland's other pool opponents Australia and Fiji.

As such, Murphy says it suits Ireland to go up against a more familiar opponent in the opening round of games.

"Obviously Australia have played New Zealand twice. We've managed to see some of that footage and got a little bit of a look at them.

"England are obviously one of our closest rivals. The last competitive game we played was against England, so we've got a really good look at them. They've quite a few familiar names on their team-sheet as well going into this game.

"Fiji, for instance, is in our group, we haven't seen anything on Fiji. They're staying in the same hotel as us here and seem to be good lads, but again, until we see them play, we don't really know what we're facing."