The Ireland Under-20 Team (Sponsored by PwC) to play England in the opening game of the IRB Junior World Championship in Italy has been named.
Coach, Mike Ruddock has named 11 changes to the opening side that faced England in their last outing in the Six Nations Tournament earlier in the year.
Craig Gilroy has been called up to full-back and is joined in the back three by the experienced Andrew Conway and Andrew Boyle. Leinster’s Brendan Macken and Ulster’s Luke Marshall make up the central pairing.
Paddy Jackson starts at out-half and is partnered by newcomer, Kieran Marmion at scrum-half.
Captain, Niall Annett will be joined in the front row by James Tracy and Tadhg Furlong with Ian Henderson and Michael Kearney forming the second row while the back row features Jordi Murphy, Dominic Gallagher and Eoin McKeon.
Speaking ahead of the opening game Coach, Mike Ruddock said “The players have trained very well. We have had a really good preparation with two warm-up games which we didn’t have before last year’s tournament so we are really positive about our build-up”.
“We are going into the tournament in a very positive frame of mind and we know that England are favourites for this game. We realise that they are the Under-20 Grand Slam champion and we respect that, however this will be a different Ireland team to the one that they played in the Six Nations with as many as 11 changes to the starting team”.
“We have prepared well with senior Ireland coaches, Les Kiss and Gert Smal helping out and we are as ready as we can ever be for a game of this magnitude”.
Ireland Under-20 Team to play England Under-20 (IRB Junior World Championship, Treviso, Friday 10th June, kick-off 18.10hrs local time/ 17.10hrs Irish time)
15 – Craig Gilroy (Dungannon – Ulster)
14 – Andrew Conway (Blackrock – Leinster)
13 – Brendan Macken (Blackrock – Leinster)
12 – Luke Marshall (Ballymena -Ulster)
11 – Andrew Boyle (UCD – Leinster)
10 – Paddy Jackson (Dungannon – Ulster)
9 – Kieran Marmion (UWIC – Exile)
1 – James Tracy (UCD – Leinster)
2 – Niall Annett (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
3 – Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf – Leinster)
4 – Michael Kearney (Clontarf – Leinster)
5 – Iain Henderson (Queens – Ulster)
6 – Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne – Leinster)
7 – Dominic Gallagher (Dublin University – Ulster)
8 – Eoin McKeon (Galwegians – Connacht)
Replacements –
16 – David Doyle (UCD – Leinster)
17 – Conor Carey (Ballymena – Ulster)
18 – Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers – Connacht)
19 – Shane Buckley (Garryowen – Munster)
20 – Peter Du Toit (UCD – Leinster)
21 – James McKinney (Queens – Ulster)
22 – JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemians – Munster)
Two of the Ireland Under-20s Pool C matches will be broadcast on Sky Sports – their opening fixture against England on Friday, June 10 and the clash with South Africa on Tuesday, June 14.
Those two games will also be streamed live on the official tournament website www.irb.com/jwc and there will be further coverage of the knockout stages on TV and online.
Ireland Under-20 Pool Games (All Times are Local)
10 Jun 18:10 England v Ireland Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso
14 Jun 20:10 Ireland v South Africa Stadio Comunale di Monigo, Treviso
18 Jun 20:10 Ireland v Scotland Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo
