Two tries from recent Leinster debutant Andrew Conway steered Ireland to a 25-10 victory and despite conceding a penalty try some ferocious defence stopped England crossing their tryline.

And while many were labelling the result an upset victory, Clarke says they fully earned the right to go top of the Under-20 table.

He said: “We are obviously really pleased with the result. To go away from home the home side will always have the momentum but we defended well and were good going forward.

“I thought we dictated the pace of the game and on balance I thought we probably deserved it.

“We scored three good tries and it really should have been more and while England had a lot of the ball we were able to contain them and they weren’t able to cross our line which we are delighted about.

“To come to England and get a result requires an outstanding team performance and that is what we got.”