Ireland Club coaches Conor Twomey and David Murphy have named a 26 man squad for the Ireland Club XV v England Counties game in Cork Constitution FC on Friday February 8th.
Twomey, UCC Coach last season, and Murphy, DLSP, have been working hard with the squad since before Christmas and narrowed down the panel from an initial 35 to 26 this week.
Last year the Irish team were beaten by their English counterparts in Preston North End and Twomey feels he has assembled a strong squad for the game in Temple Hill.
Cork Con’s Gerry Hurley will captain the squad which includes several experienced players at this level such as former captains Frank Cogan, Simon Crawford and Sam Cronin.
Dolphin’s prolific points scorer Barry Keeshan is also named and is likely to partner Hurley in the half backs.
Also returning to the squad from last year are Cian Aherne and Craig Ronaldson from Lansdowne, Risteard Byrne from UCD, Rob Sweeney from St. Mary’s College, Neville Melbourne from Young Munster, James Thompson from Ballynahinch and Fergal Walsh from Shannon.
In all there are 12Ulster Bank League Clubs represented from the top two divisions with 11 uncapped players included. Last season’s champions St. Mary’s College have four players in the squad while Clontarf have five.
Shannon and Ballinahinch each have three on the squad followed by Cork Con, Lansdowne and UCD with two while Old Belvedere, Malone, UL Bohs , Young Munster, Dolphin have one representative each.
Cork Con are encouraging as many supporters as possible to come along to Temple Hill and enjoy a great evening of rugby and the fantastic new facilities that will be officially opened on the day.
IRELAND CLUB Squad (v England Counties, Ulster Bank Club International, Temple Hill, Friday, February 8th , kick-off 7.30pm:
Pa Regan (Old Belvedere)
RobertSweeney (St Mary’s College)
Andrew O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution)
Risterad Byrne (UCD)
Richie Sweeney (St Mary’s College RFC)
Kevin Griffin (Shannon RFC)
Colm McMahon (St Mary’s College RFC)
Fergal Walsh (Shannon RFC)
Ed Kelly (UL Bohemians)
Neville Melbourne (Young Munster)
Simon Crawford (Clontarf)
Danny Kenny (UCD)
Paul Prichard (Ballynahinch)
Frank Cogan (Clontarf)
Glenn Moore (Malone)
Sam Cronin (Clontarf)
Gerry Hurley (Cork Constitution) Captain
Barry Keeshan (Dolphin)
Craig Ronaldson (Lansdowne)
Cian Ahern (Lansdowne)
Darragh Fanning (St Mary’s College)
Tim McCoy (Clontarf)
Killian Lett (Clontarf)
James Thompson (Ballynahinch)
Stuart Morrow (Ballynahinch)
Richie Mullane (Shannon)
