Te Puke prop Aidan Ross continues to thrive in the Junior All Blacks environment after being named in the side for their crucial showdown with Ireland at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship.

The two sides clash tomorrow morning in their final Pool C match, with the winner earning a spot in the semi-finals.

NZ Under-20 and Te Puke prop Aidan Ross. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

The loser of that match will have to rely on being the best second-placed team of the three groups, in order to make the final four.

So far, New Zealand have made it two wins from two in Italy, steamrollering Scotland 68-10 before sneaking past Argentina 32-29.

The Kiwis haven't won the World Rugby Under-20 Championship since it was last held in Italy four years ago.

After starting the first two matches, Ross moves back to the bench – one of 12 changes to the side that narrowly defeated Argentina last weekend.

New Zealand Under-20 head coach Scott Robertson is urging his team to work on their mental skills for their final pool game.

'We definitely need to be a lot smarter,” explains Robertson.

'We've assessed how we played at the weekend and improved our game understanding.

'Argentina slowed our game down quite a lot. They stopped us playing by a lot of different means and we have to be much smarter in the way we deal with that.

'They were very clear in the way they wanted to stop us playing, obviously with mauls, keeping the ball tight, playing one-two ball football, and just keeping to the short side.

'We didn't deal with it that well, but fortunately we got through with the win.”

New Zealand, along with England, South Africa and Australia, are all on 10 points at this stage of the tournament, and Ireland, who are also unbeaten, trail behind with eight.

All of which means competition for the top four is tight.

'A do or die quarter-final against Ireland waits for us, so winner takes all,” acknowledges Robertson.

'Our focus is to finish on top with the best for and against record. There's only six points between the top three teams at the moment, including us.”

England currently has a points difference of 66, New Zealand has 61, with South Africa just behind on 60.

'We watched Ireland in the Six Nations and in their last two pool games and they haven't changed too much,” he adds.

'They're very similar to Scotland in a lot of ways. They love the maul, they're really good around their attack strategy and counter attack.

'This game's a priority and our intention is hopefully to create enough forward thrust to finish fine, while respecting Ireland in our preparation and winning the match.

'The opportunity is there to score as many as we can, but the best thing is to win it.”

He says the selectors have picked a strong line-up which can get the required result and finish at the top of the table.

Last year NZ beat Ireland 45-23 in the play-off for third spot.

Fresh off the plane, midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown will arrive to watch on the sidelines at Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, after being released from the Chiefs.

He has replaced Mitchell Karpik, who picked up an ankle injury during the game against Argentina.

New Zealand's match against Ireland kicks off at 6:30am on Thursday morning (NZ time).

New Zealand Under-20 side to face Ireland:

1 Isileli Tu'ungafasi (Auckland)

2 Liam Polwart (Auckland)

3 Atunaisa Moli (Waikato)

4 Joshua Goodhue (Canterbury)

5 Hamish Dalzell (Canterbury)

6 James Blackwell (Wellington)

7 Blake Gibson (Auckland)

8 Akira Ioane (Auckland)

9 Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi (Taranaki)

10 Otere Black (Manawatu)

11 Vincent Tavae-Aso (Auckland)

12 Nathaniel Apa (Canterbury)

13 Jack Goodhue (Canterbury)

14 Tevita Li (North Harbour)

15 Luteru Laulala (Canterbury)

Reserves:

16 Ricky Riccitelli (Hawke's Bay)

17 Aidan Ross (Bay of Plenty)

18 Tau Koloamatangi (Waikato)

19 Mitchell Dunshea (Canterbury)

20 Henry Stowers (Wellington)

21 Harrison Levien (Waikato)

22 Tinoai (TJ) Faiane (Auckland)

23 Mitchell Hunt Auckland