Wales will now face France, who beat Samoa 16-6 in the other fifth place semi-final, on Sunday, in a match that will decide fifth and sixth positions in the overall tournament standings.
Only three points had separated Wales and Ireland when they met in the RBS U20 Six Nations earlier this year with Ireland winning 9-6 in Wales en route to missing out on the title on point differential to France.
Ireland opened the scoring in the sixth minute when wing Michael Keating touched down in the corner, but Ian McKinley missed the conversion and the gloss was somewhat taken off the try with their captain Peter O’Mahony forced off injured.
Within minutes Wales had opened their account with a Matthew Jarvis penalty and they kept trying to gain territory but the Irish defence held firm initially. They did though get their reward when the forwards fashioned a try for the tournament’s joint top try scorer, flanker Justin Tipuric in the 22nd minute.
Jarvis kicked the conversion and a second penalty within minute as Wales seemed to draw confidence and urgency after a slightly hesitant start, but it was Ireland who scored next with McKinley slotting a penalty between the posts after the fly half had missed an attempted drop goal.
Wales though still went in with a five-point advantage at half time thanks to another Jarvis penalty and things did not improve for Ireland when they lost flanker Brian O’Hara to injury within a minute of the restart.
With the whole pitch now in the shade for the second half in Fukuoka, the Welsh kept possession of the ball and forced Ireland to give away a penalty, which Jarvis duly kicked to take his side out to 19-11 after 45 minutes.
The two sides exchanged kicks with neither able to make the breakthrough, although Ireland with a few fresh players did spend the majority of the next 20 minutes in the Welsh half they failed to add to their tally due to a mix of handling errors and their opponents’ defence.
Ireland’s persistence finally paid off when McKinley kicked a penalty with 13 minutes remaining, but although the fly half added another five minutes from time it was not enough with Wales holding on for the victory and a place in the fifth place play-off.
Wales head coach Phil Davies was pleased with the commitment shown by his charges: “We are very pleased and proud of the players today. A lot of effort and work has gone on, before the tournament and since our arrival in Japan and to be playing for fifth or sixth position in the Junior World Championship when we finished fifth in the Six Nations is a fantastic achievement.
“We showed fantastic character to stay in the game today. We gave away too many penalties, but that doesn’t matter now.”
Wales captain Scott Andrews, who started his first game of the tournament against Ireland said: “We worked hard for the result and the endeavour of the players is what made the difference today. We have played France before and they are a quality outfit but we want to end this tournament as well as we possibly can.”
Ireland coach Allen Clarke added: “All credit to Wales, they made it difficult for us today, and contributed to our mistakes, but we weren’t at our best either.”
