Ireland Under 20 Squad Announced

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Coach, Allen Clarke, has named 14 forwards and 12 backs in the squad with seven players having previously lined out for the U-20’s including recent Leinster debutant, Rhys Ruddock. Tiernan O'Halloran of Connacht is also included as are John Cooney and Nevin Spence from last year's squad. Ireland open their campaign with a fixture against Italy on Friday 5th February and will again make Dubarry Park in Athlone their home for the tournament.

Speaking of his selection Clarke said "The attitude of the players has been excellent, both in their individual attention and motivation while developing with their provincial rugby and fitness coaches and while playing for their clubs.

"The warm up games against the Provincial Development sides have provided the opportunity to develop our game and identify the areas we need to improve."

"We all recognize the potential of the squad while respecting the challenges ahead, the first of which is to start the Six Nations campaign against Italy at home with a good performance. Being the first game of the championship means we have little knowledge of the opposition so our concentration is to be accurate with and without the ball.’

IRELAND Under 20 Squad (2010 RBS 6 Nations Championship)

Backs -
Andrew Conway (Blackrock/Leinster)
John Cooney (UCD/Leinster)*
Eoin Griffin (Corinthians/Connacht)
Michael Heaney (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Darren Hudson (St. Mary's /Leinster)
Brian Kingston (Blackrock/Leinster)
Brendan Macken (Blackrock/Leinster)
James McKinney (Queens/Ulster)
David McSharry (UCD/Leinster)
Tiernan O'Halloran (Galwegians/Connacht)
Nevin Spence (Ballynahinch/Ulster)*
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Forwards-
Niall Annett (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Denis Buckley (Corinthians/Connacht)
Patrick Butler (Shannon/Munster)
Bryan Cagney (UCC/Munster)
David Doyle (UCD/Leinster)
Brian Hayes (Cork Constitution/Munster)*
Stewart Maguire (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Ben Marshall (UCD/Leinster)
Jordi Murphy (Blackrock/Leinster)
Robin O’Sullivan (Bective/Leinster)
David O'Callaghan (UCC/Munster)*
Jack O'Connell (Lansdowne/Leinster)*
Rhys Ruddock (UCD/Leinster)*
Dominic Ryan (Lansdowne/Leinster)*

From http://www.irishrugby.ie/283_19490.php

It's a very talented squad but it might be a year early for them. Their best players are still u19.

There are two notable absentees. Noel Reid was the likely starting outhalf before injury struck while Brian O'Hara also must be injured seeing as he captained the team in their friendles against Leinster A and the Ulster Ravens.

 

[feicarsinn]

Expecting big things from Brendan Macken, Tiernan O'Halloran, Nevin Spence, Liam Zebo, Denis Buckley, Jordi Murphy, Dominic Ryan and Rhys Ruddock.

Tis a good team. Here's to another championship.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (feicarsinn @ Jan 25 2010, 06:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Expecting big things from Brendan Macken, Tiernan O'Halloran, Nevin Spence, Liam Zebo, Denis Buckley, Jordi Murphy, Dominic Ryan and Rhys Ruddock.

Tis a good team. Here's to another championship.[/b]

Winning the Championship is of little concern to me. I'd much rather see Allen Clarke trust his players and allow them showcase their ability than adhere to a rigid game plan which may get results but won't develop talented players. Put the ball in the hands of the outside backs and backrowers and see what they can do.

Four of these games will be live on RTE Two. The other game v England is likely to be on Sky Sports. They could be well worth watching.

The provincial breakdown is as follows if anybody's interested:
Connacht 3
Leinster 14
Munster 5
Ulster 4

 

[feicarsinn]

Just goes to show you howbigrugby has grwon in this country over the last ten years. Imagine in 2000 the idea of the national broadcaster showing 4 under 20 rugby games on friday nights. unthinkable. But here we are.


Of course winning the championship is of secondary concern to player development but all the same it would be a nice one to have.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

The Under 20 team will be hoping to go one better than last year when they finished runners up on points difference to France, who secured the ***le on the final weekend of the Championship with a win over Ireland’s Friday night opponents Italy. In the backline centre Nevin Spence makes a return to the side from last season along with scrum half John Cooney. Five forwards return from last season, front row Jack O’Connell, second row David O’Callaghan and Leinster duo, Dominic Ryan and Rhys Ruddock in the back row and Brian Hayes in the replacements. Ruddock will captain this season’s side.

The Ireland Under 20 team have been supported by sponsors PricewaterhouseCoopers over the last four seasons, during which time the team secured a Grand Slam in 2007.

That support will again be evident this year with the consultancy firm making its debut this Friday as team sponsor across the new Ireland playing strip which the Under 20 team will be wearing in their first competitive international fixture.

Commenting on their support of the under 20 team, Ronan Murphy, Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers said “We are delighted to continue our support for Irish Rugby and for the Under 20’s team in particular. No matter what the challenges in sport or in business, having the right team, with the right talent, will achieve top class performance."

"At PwC, we are committed to helping clients tackle today’s tough business challenges by having the best people working together. We wish the Under 20’s team success in their forthcoming Under 20's RBS 6 Nations Championship."

The game is broadcast live on RTE.

Ireland Under 20s Team & Replacements (V Italy U20, Six Nations Championship, Dubarry Park, Friday February 5th, ko 19:35)

15 Andrew Conway (Blackrock College/Leinster)
14 Darren Hudson (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
13 Brendan Macken (Blackrock/Leinster)
12 Nevin Spence (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
11 Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster)
10 James McKinney (Queens University/Ulster)
9 John Cooney (UCD /Leinster)

1 Brian Cagney (UCC/Munster)
2 Niall Annett (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
3 Jack O'Connell (Lansdowne/Leinster)
4 David O'Callaghan (UCC/Munster)
5 Ben Marshall (UCD/Leinster)
6 Rhys Ruddock (UCD/Leinster) Captain
7 Dominic Ryan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
8 Patrick Butler (Shannon/Munster)

Replacements
16 David Doyle (UCD/Leinster)
17 Stewart Maguire (Old Belvedere/ Leinster)
18 Brian Hayes (Cork Constitution/Munster)
19 Robin O' Sullivan (Bective Rangers/Leinster)
20 Michael Heaney (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
21 Brian Kingston (Blackrock/Leinster)
22 Eoin Griffin (Corinthians/Connacht)[/b]

I'm looking forward to this. Despite the absence of Noel Reid and Tiernan O'Halloran (through injury?) it's still a potentially excellent backline. Macken and Spence in the centre could prove to be a very potent combination. The backrow is outstanding but the tight 5 is an unknown quantity. Niall Annett is the frontrower I most want to see. He has a brilliant pedigree from his time in schools rugby with Methody where he often lined out at no.8.

I'm slightly surprised that Brian Hayes and Stewart Maguire don't start. Maguire was poached by the Leinster academy due to his massive frame but he misses out to the Leinster u20 captain who isn't in the academy.

 

[MunsterMan]

Tiernan O'Halloran is playing for Connacht A against Munster A this week, strange he is left out.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

http://www.rte.ie/ie/sportsixnations2010/e..._20s_preview

The under-20s grade has received much publicity in recent years when compared with other underage teams. The grade can be viewed as a 'talent confirmation phase', according to Ulster Academy manager Gary Longwell.

This assessment fits snugly into the IRFU's national talent programme, which aims to streamline the transition a player faces when attempting to turn the potential of youth into a professional career.


IRFU High Performance Director and Ireland U-20s manager Allen Clarke has been a vital cog in masterminding the union's approach to developing young talent. His U-20s side acts as both the apex of the underage game, and the base camp for the professional one. It was during the U-19 World Cup in 2007 that Clarke saw the need for change within Ireland's underage structure. They had finished ninth overall, and were physically overwhelmed by both Australia and South Africa in the group phase.

The reason was that most tier-1 countries had their players training as professionals within academy set-ups from their mid-teens onwards. In Ireland, professional teams - i.e. the provinces - had no real access to their prospective employees until after they finished school.

For all the merits of the schools system, and its emphasis on chasing silverware, many players were leaving school physically unprepared for the challenges that lay ahead in the professional game and, before that, in underage international competition.

Screening from the age of 13

When the academy system was regionalised in 2004 the provincial academies were used almost as a screening process, determining after up to three years of monitoring which players would make it in the professional environment. Now, under the auspices of the national talent programme, that screening process begins as young as U-13 level.

By the time players reach U-16 level an expanded group has been chosen which adhere to conditioning and skills programmes implemented by the provincial academies. The aim is that players have a minimum of two years' supervised training behind them when they leave school.

At this point the initial group chosen at U-16 level has been whittled down from maybe 70 to 35 or so, and these would be in contention to represent their province at either U-19 or, ultimately, U-20 level.


While exceptional talents like Luke Fitzgerald or Keith Earls would go straight from school into the academy or the senior squad, most players' futures will be decided upon based on their performance at U-20 level. The cream of the crop will progress into the provincial academies. Any player selected for an academy should in theory have already confirmed his ability to play professional rugby so from this point on his game is simply being fine-tuned. While underage success is in part determined by the talent available within a given year, Ireland's U-20 teams have improved greatly in recent seasons. This improvement is measured not just in terms of results, but more importantly in terms of the number of players graduating to full-time professional rugby.

The 2007 U-20 grand slam-winners were an exceptional crop with 10 of the starting 15 already established firmly in or around the provincial first teams. And the likes of Earls, Cave, Healy and O'Brien have already been capped by Ireland at senior level. This despite the fact that the majority of that team would have just turned 22.

No room for late developers?

The system is not without flaws. It is becoming a more ruthless environment and it may not allow much room for the emergence of late developers a la John Hayes. By and large, though, the national talent programme has been hugely beneficial for Irish rugby. The level of planning is such that Allen Clarke and Gary Longwell recently held a meeting to discuss Ireland's preparations for the world cup…in 2019.

And so to this year's crop. Form lines are hard to decipher when it comes to underage sides since this is essentially the first time they have come together en bloc in a competitive environment. In their three warm-up games they suffered narrow losses to a Leinster Development XV and the Ulster A side, and recorded a victory against a weakened Munster Academy XV.

The performances compared to previous years were quite encouraging: last year's U-20s lost 39-7 to a Leinster Development XV, whereas this year's bunch held them to an 11- point margin in a tough encounter over Christmas.

Further encouragement can be taken from the Ireland U-19 side's victory over their Australian counterparts in December. Up to five of that side could feature in this year's U-20s starting line-up. These include highly promising Blackrock trio Jordi Murphy, Andrew Conway and Brendan Macken.

Macken has already played senior for Leinster while Conway's performances in last year's schools cup earned him favourable comparisons with Blackrock's last three-quarter superstar, Luke Fitzgerald.

Connacht duo Tiernan O'Halloran and Eoin Griffin also featured for the 19s and if they fulfil anything like their potential it is hard to see them remaining in Galway for much longer.

Brian O'Hara, Dominic Ryan, Nevin Spence and Rhys Ruddock all remain underage following hugely impressive campaigns last year. Number 8 Patrick Butler is also highly rated. In his first year out of school Butler has already forced his way into the Shannon side which currently sit top of division 1a of the All-Ireland League. The former Rockwell college pupil is rated as the best player to come through the Tipperary nursery since Dennis Leamy.

High hopes and catch-22

Coach Clarke has high hopes for the coming season. 'We all recognize the potential of the squad while respecting the challenges ahead, the first of which is to start the Six Nations campaign against Italy at home with a good performance.

'Being the first game of the championship means we have little knowledge of the opposition so our concentration is to be accurate with and without the ball.'

The catch-22 for this side is the fact that almost their entire backline will still be underage next year. While this is a measure of their enormous potential, it may also mean they need a further year's experience before they can fully demonstrate their talents. The absence of former Castletroy College star Diarmuid McCarthy is also a blow to the squad.

All things considered, there may be more raw talent in this year's group then even in the '07 grand slam-winning vintage. Whether they can replicate the success of that group remains to be seen.

By the time the backline reach maturity in next year's championship, the majority of this year's pack will be overage. But you would expect Ireland to be challenging for the championship this season despite having to play France and England away. More importantly, you would expect up to a dozen members of this year's squad to be challenging for a place in the senior squad for the 2015 World Cup.[/b]

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

13-0 to Ireland after 30 minutes - tries from Hudson and Spence. The scrum looks very powerful and the back three seem to be excellent counter attackers. The half backs are passing quite poorly though.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Still 13-0 at the break.

As I said in my last post, the Irish scrum has been rock solid on their own ball and is completely disrupting Italy's possession.

The backrow, especially Patrick Butler, have been everywhere.

Lineout is going okay.

Half backs look very average. McKinney is a good player but seems nervous - his place kicking, passing (although it improved as the half wore on) and tactical kicking haven't been great.

Spence seems dangerous in midfield while Macken is f'n massive and eager to get on he ball.

Very impressed with the back three. Zebo is somebody I'm not familiar with but he seems like a real prospect as he's big, quick, solid under the high ball and runs with the ball in both hands.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Superb try down the blindside by Ireland. Zebo with an excellent finish. 20-0

 

[monkeypigeon]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snoopy snoopy dog dog @ Feb 5 2010, 08:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Still 13-0 at the break.

As I said in my last post, the Irish scrum has been rock solid on their own ball and is completely disrupting Italy's possession.

The backrow, especially Patrick Butler, have been everywhere.

Lineout is going okay.

Half backs look very average. McKinney is a good player but seems nervous - his place kicking, passing (although it improved as the half wore on) and tactical kicking haven't been great.

Spence seems dangerous in midfield while Macken is f'n massive and eager to get on he ball.

Very impressed with the back three. Zebo is somebody I'm not familiar with but he seems like a real prospect as he's big, quick, solid under the high ball and runs with the ball in both hands.[/b]

Pres guy from 2 years ago. Known for his speed. But not so much for his defence though I'm sure the last year and a half in the AIL Division 1 (and 1A) with Con has fixed that. I think he's in the Munster Academy at the moment...not sure. I'll check later.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Darren Hudson just scored his 2nd try after a beautiful pop pass from James McKinney. The flyhalf has looked much better in the 2nd half.

Italy are awful.

27-0

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

6 tries to zip; 39-0 final score. Hat-trick from Hudson plus one each from Zebo, Spence and Macken. There's some explosive pace and power in that backline.

Second half was better than the first with both flyhalves looking good in that period. McKinney needs to move forward a bit more because he tends to sit in the pocket. Kingston moved the ball better but didn't control the game as well as the guy he replaced.

Stewart Maguire may be a man mountain but the scrum noticably got worse when he took the field. Apparently the same has been happening when he's played for Leinster. He needs a lot of work.

Thought the lineout got much worse when David Doyle replaced Niall Annett. Doyle has recently converted from flanker which may explain his struggles throwing the ball in.

Overall, plenty of positives but there's a lot to work on.

 

[Olyy]

Looking forward to the England Ireland match, should be a cracker

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Olyy @ Feb 5 2010, 09:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Looking forward to the England Ireland match, should be a cracker[/b]

Hopefully it will be. I thnk it may be closer to the World Cup before Ireland peak. There are 3 or 4 probable startng players who missed yesterday's game through injury or other reasons.

England should be very good at this level for the next few years seeing as the extra kids who took up rugby after the 2003 World Cup win will be coming to the fore around now.