Irish U20s Named For Junior World Championship

Ireland U20s will commence their 2011 Junior World Championship campaign against England on Friday evening in Italy with both of Munster’s representatives named in the squad.

Munster's representation includes academy players JJ Hanrahan and Shane Buckley and both are named in the replacements to face England.

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 Ireland U20s Head 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 champions 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 U20s play England U20s in Treviso on Friday June 10th, ko 6.10pm (5.10pm Irish time), and the game will be televised on Sky Sports and streamed live on the IRB website, www.irb.com/jwc

Ireland Under 20 Squad:
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) Capt.
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)

Ireland Under 20 Pool C 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