14 forwards and 12 backs have been named by Allen Clarke in the Under 20s squad which features seven previous U20 players.
IRELAND UNDER-20 Squad (2010 RBS U-20 6 Nations Championship):
Backs (12) -
Andrew Conway (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
John Cooney (UCD/Leinster)*
Eoin Griffin (Corinthians/Connacht)
Michael Heaney (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
Darren Hudson (St. Mary’s College RFC/Leinster)
Brian Kingston (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
Brendan Macken (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster)
James McKinney (Queen’s University/Ulster)
David McSharry (UCD/Leinster)
Tiernan O’Halloran (Galwegians/Connacht)
Nevin Spence (Ballynahinch/Ulster)*
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Forwards (14) -
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 College RFC/Leinster)
Robin O’Sullivan (Bective Rangers/Leinster)
David O’Callaghan (UCC/Munster)*
Jack O’Connell (Lansdowne/Leinster)*
Rhys Ruddock (UCD/Leinster)*
Dominic Ryan (Lansdowne/Leinster)*
* Denotes previously capped player at Under-20 level
A squad of 44 has been named to cover the competitive fixtures over the next 3 weeks which include two ‘A’ games against England Saxons and Scotland ‘A’.
Declan Kidney was keen to stress that there were three priorities with this squad, Ireland A fixtures, the opening Six Nations game against Italy and the Rugby World Cup.
Nine uncapped players feature in the squad, along with a couple of returns in Rory Best and Marcus Horan.
IRELAND Squad (2010 RBS 6 Nations Championship):
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Isaac Boss (Ballymena/Ulster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Ian Dowling (Shannon/Munster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Declan Fitzpatrick (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)*
Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
John Fogarty (De La Salle Palmerston/Leinster)*
John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)*
Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)
Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster)
Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)*
Johne Murphy (Leicester)*
Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster)*
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)*
David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht)*
* Denotes uncapped player
From a stunning hat-trick on his debut against France in the Six Nations 2000, to leading Leinster to the Heineken Cup, to leading Ireland to a first Grand Slam in 61 years O’Driscoll has had a massive career (and that doesn’t even mention his three Lions tours!).
O’Driscoll was the only Irishman included in the Rugby World magazine’s Team of the Decade featuring seven North Hemisphere players and nine from the South.
RUGBY WORLD TEAM OF THE DECADE: Mils Muliana (New Zealand); Jason Robinson (England), Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland), Matt Giteau (Australia), Shane Williams (Wales); Dan Carter (New Zealand), Agustin Pichot (Argentina); Gethin Jenkins (Wales), John Smit (South Africa), Carl Hayman (New Zealand), Martin Johnson (England) (capt), Victor Matfield (South Africa), Richard Hill (England), Richie McCaw (New Zealand), Sergio Parisse (Italy).
Replacements: Rodrigo Roncero (Argentina), Mario Ledesma (Argentina), Sylvain Marconnet (France), Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe (Argentina), Fourie Du Preez (South Africa), Jonny Wilkinson (England), Yannick Jauzion (France), Juan Martin Hernandez (Argentina).
Ulster Ravens applied pressure in the second half to score a deserved victory against the Ireland U20 side yesterday.
IRELAND UNDER-20s 10 ULSTER RAVENS 18, UCD
Scorers: Ireland U-20: Tries: Simon Zebo, John Cooney
Ulster Ravens: Tries: Penalty try, Craig Gilroy; Con: Paddy Robinson; Pens: Paddy Robinson 2
After a fairly even start the home side took the lead in the 23rd when Cork Constitution winger Simon Zebo swept across the line from a move that started in the Irish 22, Brian Kingston failed to convert. Shortly afterwards Ryan was sin-binned for infringements at the breakdown, allowing Ravens to pile on the pressure resulting in an unconverted penalty try just before half time.
Early play was scrappy in the second half, a penalty in the 51st put the Ravens ahead briefly before an excellent unconverted try by John Cooney, 10-8.
A disallowed try in the 59th by the Under-20s looked to put them ahead before one of the assistants flagged that a punch had been thrown in the ruck. The final quarter saw the Under-20s move the ball around more only for disaster to strike and Craig Gliroy intercepted on the half way to get a try under the posts, allowing an easy conversion for the Ravens. Ravens lead 15-10.
A final penalty by Robinson in the 73rd wrapped things up 18-10.
The management should take much from this game despite the loss, as a preparation for the Under 20s’ Six Nations campaign starting against Italy on Friday February 5th.
According to Roger Jones, he believe Ireland now have the depth they need after the most fantastic year for both clubs and country!
Read about it here.
Donncha O’Callaghan capped off an amazing year yesterday by marrying his long-term girlfriend Jennifer Harte in Cork.
With a winter wonderland surrounding them, vast amounts of salt was scattered around the entrance to St Columba’s Chuch to avoid any injury to the pride of Irish rugby in attendance.
Almost all of the Ireland, Munster and Leinster players were there, along with some international stars such as Dougie Howlett (All Blacks), Lifeimi Mafi (Tonga) and Tigers captain Geordan Murphy. The bride’s cousin had a dual role on the day as well as being family he is Donncha’s captain at international level – yes none other than Brian O’Driscoll!
Rugby fans gathered at the church to congratulate the happy couple, with a handful eager to gather autographs from the assembled galaxy of stars.
Our pictures show Donncha looking a little less clean cut during the famous victory that capped their first grand slam in 60 years!
At 25 the world’s his oyster and his market value soared after an amazing Lions tour where he scored four tries. Out of contract at the end of the season with Ospreys, interest is growing from Ulster, Leinster and Munster!
That said it looks like the Ospreys will retain Mr Bowe’s services having scored nine tries in nine games for them. A move back to Ireland give Bowe an IRFU central contract, which would give generous player welfare through to the next World Cup.
Bowe still has strong connections at Ulster, but with two recent Heineken Cup champions interested, that’s got to be tempting hasn’t it?
DUBLIN, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Ireland and Munster back row forward Denis Leamy has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, the southern Irish province said in a statement on Wednesday.
Leamy was injured in the last play of Sunday’s bonus point 37-14 Heineken Cup victory at Perpignan and was operated on in Dublin on Tuesday.
He will miss Ireland’s Six Nations defence which begins in February and Munster’s bid for a third European title.
The pools have been announced for the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, the games will be played from August 20 to September 5th and feature three pools of four teams.
The seeded sides in their individual pools are:
- New Zealand, defending champions.
- England, hosts and 2006 runners-up.
- France, 2006 bronze medallists.
The qualification process saw 16 teams complete for those six places outside of those automatically qualifed.
Direct Qualifiers
New Zealand, England, France, Canada, USA and South Africa all qualified directly,
Six Nations Qualifiers
Wales and Ireland
Regional Qualifiers:
Sweden and Scotland – European qualifiers
Australia – the Oceania qualifier.
Kazakhstan from Asia.
The pools are:
Pool A: New Zealand, Wales, Australia, South Africa
Pool B: England, USA, Ireland, Kazakhstan
Pool C: France, Canada, Scotland, Sweden
Luke Fitzgerald will be out for four to six months after rupturing a knee ligament in Ireland’s 20-20 draw with Australia. Fitzgerald will require surgery and intensive rehabilitation in that time.
Seven other changes have been made for the Fiji game since that nail-biting draw, with Jonathan Sexton ready to make his debut. Horgan, Reddan and D’Arcy come in from the Leinster backline with winger Keith Earls.
Leo Cullen, Australian born Tom Court and Denis Leamy will join the pack.
