Grand Slam Beckons For Elwood’s U20s.

For the first time in this year’s Six Nations U20 Championship, Ireland coach Eric Elwood has named an unchanged side for the clash with Italy today (Friday), in Santa Colomba Stadium, Benevento (kick-off 1.30pm Irish time).

The U20’s clinched the Triple Crown last weekend with a 31 – 8 victory over Scotland and now head into their final game against Italy looking to secure an unprecedented U20 Grand Slam.   

Speaking about the task that faces his charges, Elwood said, “We all know what a great opportunity this is, but rather than focus on the prize at the end, we are looking for the players to focus on the performance”. 

“In the last game against Scotland, we probably had a certain amount of nerves and we played a little bit within ourselves in the first half, but the second half was a vast improvement and near the levels of where we wanted.  Italy will be a big challenge and will be very physical up front as they have shown in their previous games, so we have to be able to meet that challenge. 

“Overall, the championship has allowed the players to really prosper and play to their potential and if they continue to do that, hopefully we will be on the right side of the result”.

15 – Felix Jones                          Seapoint/Leinster

14 – Shane Monahan                  Dublin University/Leinster

13 – Darren Cave                        Belfast Harlequins/Ulster

12 – Aidan Wynne                       Buccaneers/Connacht

11 – Keith Earls                          Thomond/Munster

10 – Ian Keatley                          UCD/Leinster

9 – Paul O’Donohoe                     UCD/Leinster

1 – Cian Healy                            Clontarf/Leinster

2 – Richard Sweeney                  St. Mary’s College/Leinster

3 – Jamie Hagan                         Greystones/Leinster

4 – Conor Mc Inerney                  UCD/Leinster

5 – Andrew Browne                    Galwegians/Connacht 

6 – Thomas Anderson                 Dungannon/Ulster

7 – Kevin Sheahan                      UCD/Leinster

8 – David Pollock  Captain          QUB/Ulster 

Replacements

16 – Ger Slattery                        Young Munster/Munster

17 – Ruaidhri Murphy                  Lansdowne/Leinster

18 – Neilus Keogh                       UCC/Munster

19 – Eoghan Grace                      Shannon/Munster

20 – David Drake                        Ballymena/Ulster

21 – Niall O’Connor                     Belfast Harlequins/Ulster

22 – Kyle Tonetti                         Blackrock College/Leinster