Schools Side Seek Third Win

While the current crop of Munster players are in action against Cardiff Blues at Irish Independent Park tonight, the next generation are currently competing in their underage Interprovincial campaigns.

And the future certainly looks bright with the talented young squads recording four wins from four clashes against the other provinces thus far.

Munster’s Combined U20 & Development Squad begin their campaign at Thomond Park against Ulster tonight at 7pm (Click here for their starting lineup).

There is a double-header in CIT tomorrow (Saturday) as the U18 Schools side and U19s face their Ulster counterparts with the Schools clash kicking off at 1pm and the U19s at 3pm.

A busy weekend of action is completed on Sunday as the U18 Clubs team, who won 19-14 in Ulster last week, host Leinster at Thomond Park at 2.30pm.

The U19s beat Connacht 35-0 in their opening game at Thomond Park last weekend while the U18 Schools team, sponsored by Trend Micro, have won both of their clashes in their three-team competition against Ulster and Leinster.

Munster Rugby Coach Development Officer Fiach O’Loughlin is the Head Coach of the U18 Schools side and his team are hoping to do the double over Ulster tomorrow after a strong start to a competition that sees them play tomorrow’s opponents and Leinster at home and away.

“We’ve beaten Ulster already so they will be coming down for revenge,” says O’Loughlin. “But we’ll want to improve on the performance against them in the first game and we have a lot of things to look at.

“It’s a goal for us to really go after the championship now that we’ve got two wins under our belt so we’ve a whole lot to play for with the home and away basis. I think it’s a fantastic format because it gives the players extra scope to improve themselves if they do have a bad game that they can put it right so we’ve very much looking forward to it.”

A narrow defeat to the Italy U18s preceded the Interpro Series and that was a big help to O’Loughlin’s squad, who first met up last January, as they got some invaluable game time against top quality opposition.

“It was brilliant prep to play the Italian U18s,” O’Loughlin says. “We had played the French U18 team earlier in the year when we hadn’t really trained together and that was a fantastic opportunity for them as well.

“We knew the Italy game was going to be a good marker for us before we started the Interpros and we were delighted for our players to get into Thomond Park, that was a real bonus for us as we played Leinster there as well.

“I would have been introduced to this squad just after Christmas. It started out as a fairly wide squad of maybe 50-something players when I initially met them. After that we would have trained once a month along with an Easter camp coming up to the summer programme in Rockwell and that was our main time with the players as we tried to mould the group together.”

The Interpro campaign began with a daunting trip to Ulster with O’Loughlin delighted to escape with an 18-15 victory.

He says: “It was brilliant. We knew we were facing into a tough campaign with a first game away to Ulster. We played in Methodist College and I know there’s a big history there and the performance wasn’t too fantastic but it was a fantastic win. To win up north is always a very hard thing to do, it’s not an easy place to go, especially at schools level. So we were delighted with that and it set us up coming into the home match in Thomond Park against Leinster.”

And an 8-3 win over the reigning champions followed to keep Munster in the hunt for a clean sweep, although O’Loughlin is hoping his side show more discipline tomorrow.

“We had a yellow card against Ulster and a red and a yellow against Leinster so that’s something they have to address themselves, as well as us talking to them. They’ve made the job harder for themselves on the field but, in fairness to them, they’re a really tight bunch and they go to battle together and they’ve shown that because they have been through battles in the first two interpros and they’ve really come up trumps for each other.

“They are a fantastic group, there’s no cliques. They mix – Cork and Limerick, no matter where they’re from. Before the Leinster match, all the Cork guys came up and they all went off and stayed in the Limerick guys’ houses before the match. They’ve become the best of mates now, which is great for the squad and great for the management to have that so we’re delighted with it.”

This weekend’s underage Interprovincial fixtures:
Tonight: Munster Combined U20 & Development Squad v Ulster, Thomond Park, 7pm
Tomorrow: Munster U18 Schools v Ulster, CIT, 1pm
Munster U19s v Ulster, CIT, 3pm
Sunday: Munster U18 Clubs v Leinster, Thomond Park, 2.30pm