Ireland have named their side for the U20 RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy on Friday evening.
Interest from the Eastern side of the Irish Sea will be focused on incoming full back Brett Connon of Newcastle Falcons, who replaces the injured Jack Power, and fly half Johnny McPhillips, a former Sedbergh School star.
The pack remains unchanged from Ireland’s superb victory over England U20 a fortnight ago, with the only other change to the starting fifteen being the introduction of Jacob Stockdale on the left wing
The Ireland U20 team (sponsored by PwC) to play Italy U20 in Donnybrook this Friday 11th March has been confirmed.
Speaking ahead of the game Head Coach Nigel Carolan said:
“We knew that this group of players were very capable of playing winning rugby, but errors had cost us in previous games. While it was satisfying to get the victory away to England over in Newcastle, the important thing now is that we park that win and continue to build and develop as a team.”
“There are a couple of enforced changes to the backs and some new faces amongst the substitutes so it changes things up a bit as we come to the latter stages of the competition.”
“Italy travel to Donnybrook having made England and Scotland work very hard to secure their wins, so I’ve no doubt they’ll be looking to push us hard on Friday night. If we replicate our last peformance, I am confident that we can come away with a successful outcome.”
Ireland U20 v Italy U20 – Friday, 19.35, Donnybrook Stadium (Live on RTE 2)
Ireland U20 XV:
- Brett Connon (Newcastle Falcons)
- Hugo Keenan (UCD / Leinster)
- Shane Daly (Cork Con / Munster)
- Conor O’Brien (Clontarf / Leinster)
- Jacob Stockdale (Belfast Harlequins / Ulster)
- Johnny McPhillips (Queens University / Ulster)
- Stephen Kerins (Sligo / Connacht)
- Andrew Porter (UCD / Leinster)
- Adam McBurney (Ballymena / Ulster)
- Conán O’Donnell (Sligo / Connacht)
- Peter Claffey (Galwegians / Connacht)
- James Ryan (Lansdowne / Leinster) Captain
- Cillian Gallagher (Sligo / Connacht)
- Will Connors (UCD / Leinster)
- Greg Jones (UCD / Leinster)
Replacements:
- Hugo Kean (St. Mary’s / Leinster)
- James Bollard (Dublin University / Leinster)
- Ben Betts (Munster / Young Munster)
- Sean O’Connor (Cashel / Munster)
- Max Deegan (Lansdowne / Leinster)
- John Poland (Cork Con / Munster)
- Paul Kiernan (UCC / Munster)
- Terry Kennedy (St. Mary’s / Leinster)
