Six U20 Players Named For England

The Ireland U20 squad has been named to face England in the 6 Nations championship on Friday, 26th February in Kingston Park, Newcastle (ko 6.05pm).

Cork Con centre Shane Daly will retain his starting position with five Munster players named on the bench.

Scrum half John Poland, who started in last week’s fixture against France, has moved to the bench and joins fellow back Kelvin Brown from Shannon.

Young Munster hooker Shane Fenton has also been named in the replacements along with his club colleague Ben Betts who will hope to win his first international cap.

Second row Seán O’Connor from Cashel retains his position in the replacements.

Speaking ahead of the game Ireland Head Coach Nigel Carolan said "We were disappointed with the result in France last time out. We started the game well, but we let things slip away from us before half-time and never managed to recover.

"Looking towards England on Friday, we are expecting a tough encounter in Newcastle. The English side made up for their opening loss to Scotland with a convincing win against Italy so we are prepared for them to be coming into this game full of confidence.”

The game will be broadcast live on Sky Sports 3 from 6pm.

Ireland U20 side v England U20
.Kingston Park, Newcastle, Friday 26th February. 6.05pm

15. Jack Power (UCD / Leinster)
14. Hugo Keenan (UCD / Leinster)
13. Shane Daly (Cork Con / Munster)
12. Jimmy O'Brien (UCD / Leinster)
11. Conor O'Brien (Clontarf / Leinster)
10. Johnny McPhillips (QUB / Ulster)
9. Stephen Kerins (Sligo / Connacht)
1. Andrew Porter (UCD / Leinster)
2. Adam McBurney (Ballymena / Ulster)
3. Conán O'Donnell (Sligo / Connacht)
4. Peter Claffey (Galwegians / Connacht)
5. James Ryan (Lansdowne / Leinster) Captain
6. Cillian Gallagher (Sligo / Connacht)
7. Will Connors (UCD / Leinster)
8. Greg Jones (UCD / Leinster)*

Replacements
16. Shane Fenton (Young Munster / Munster)
17. James Bollard (Dublin University / Leinster)
18. Ben Betts (Munster / Young Munster)*
19. Sean O'Connor (Cashel / Munster)
20. Kelvin Brown (Shannon / Munster)
21. John Poland (Cork Con / Munster)
22. Brett Connon (Newcastle Falcons)
23. Matthew Byrne (Terenure / Leinster)

*Denotes Uncapped at this level