Ireland U20s coach Mike Ruddock

The Ireland Under 20 team to face South Africa in the Junior World Championship has been named. This match forms part of the 5th – 8th place play-off at the championship with the final placing to be decided by the last game on Sunday the 26th June.

Under 20’s coach Mike Ruddock has made just one change to the side that won against Scotland in their final pool game of the tournament with David Doyle starting in the back row. Finlay Bealham and Alex Kelly have been named among the replacements.

Speaking ahead of the game, Ruddock said “It’s not that often that you get the opportunity to benchmark yourselves against the might of South Africa at this age grade and so having a second chance within eight days is rather unique. It is up to my players to put into practice the lessons learnt last time out. If we do that then we will improve our performance. If we improve on our last performance then we will be in the game big time.”

Ireland U20s

15 – Tiernan O’Halloran (Galwegians/Connacht)

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) (capt)
3 – Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 – Michael Kearney (Clontarf/Leinster)
5 – Iain Henderson (Queen’s University/Ulster) Daniel
6 – Eoin McKeon (Galwegians/Connacht)
7 – David Doyle (UCD/Leinster)
8 – Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster)

Replacements
16 – Finlay Bealham (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
17 – Conor Carey (Ballymena/Ulster)
18 – Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 – Shane Buckley (Garryowen/Munster)
20 – Peter du Toit (UCD/Leinster)
21 – James McKinney (Queen’s University/Ulster)
22 – Alex Kelly (UCD – Leinster)