He's not signed up to any of the academies. so for those in charge of the Accademy in Connacht they should go knocking on his door when he returns to Ireland.

Agreed but I think he's in talks with Leinster they apparently have one or two places open depending on how certain players did in the JWC so you can be dam sure they'll be after him as well. He also turned down a place in the Osprey's academy earlier this season to stay in Ireland which is lucky for Ireland and whichever province gets him (hopefully Connacht)

even though overall it was a weaker u20's team compared to previous years i thought they looked a well drilled unit thanks to mike ruddock, if chris farrell, olding and henshaw had gone to france it would have made a big difference. I'm disappointed that whoever is advising Henshaw didnt push him to go to the u20's as i think long term it would have benefitted his development to have played an u20's world cup with his peers. The one player that looked a stand-out prospect was the centre Tom Farrell, has all the skills from what i could see to make a big impression in a year or 2 and is sure to develop physically, i beleive he was out injured for most of the season so to turn up at the world cup with a lot less prep than some of the other young lads int the team is impressive also. He's not signed up to any of the academies. so for those in charge of the Accademy in Connacht they should go knocking on his door when he returns to Ireland. Darragh Leader had a solid enough world cup and should be able to make the step up to senior level.

Very good game, thought Ireland were out of it after the tries during the yellow card but apart from that 10-15 minutes in the second half Ireland were basically in control. Very frustrating result though, a couple of knock ons and silly kicks less, coupled with a better ref and some more composure from some players (specifically the tighthead!) and Ireland should have won. There surely should have been a yellow for a nz prop at some point during that game? Also I thought only the 8 could take the ball away from the scrum but savea did at one point, was the ball out of the scrum since it had basically collapsed?

ended 31-26. it was all ireland from 55mins. unlucky in the end.
one of the best games i seen in a long time

swift4prez wrote: 55mins gone, new zealand 31-11 game over

jesus man, cop on, believe!

66mins new zealand 31 ireland 23

turn on tg4, great game

55mins gone, new zealand 31-11 game over

half time, great game, 14-11. new zealand winning.
were making simple mistakes but the lads giving it there all.
we scored a 60metres try after the baby blacks.
also our centre got sin binned before half time.

on a side note, connacht should sign Baby Blacks centre, Michael Collins. We already have James Connolly signed to our Academy. That would be great!

The Ireland Under-20s, sponsored by PwC, have backed up the 19-15 victory over Australia in the first Pool game by securing a bonus point victory over Fiji at the Stade de la Rabine in Vannes, winning 46-3.

Rory Scholes (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) and Darren Sweetnam (UCC/Munster) both scored a brace of tries. Chris Taylor (Malone/Ulster) and Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) also scored for Mike Ruddock's men.

Tom Daley (Lansdowne/Leinster) kicked 3 penalties and a conversion in an 11 point haul and Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) also kicked a penalty and a conversion.

That's a good result against Fiji even is the Fijians seem to have lost the run of themselves this tournament which is ironic as this is meant to have being the best prepared Fijian youth team in years.

And Mc Auley as 11, So'oialo and Henshaw who respectively will be and was used as 13, added to TOH and Gav as 11

This policy could work but systematically taking players away from their natural position is questionable and shows up an imbalance in Academy and recruitment

That's 3 connacht players about to play fullback at international level in next 36 hours. And we have Gavin and TOH as well. Great to see riches at any position but it would be great to see our strengths spread out more evenly across the backline.

15 - Darragh Leader (Galwegians/Connacht)
14 - Darren Sweetnam (UCC/Munster)
13 - Mark Roche (Lansdowne/Connacht)
12 - Tom Daly (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Rory Scholes (Belfast Harlequins /Ulster)
10 - Steve Crosbie (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
9 - David Shanahan (Clontarf/Leinster)
1 - Edward Byrne (UCD /Leinster)
2 - Bryan Byrne (UCD/Leinster)
3 - Christopher Taylor (Malone/Ulster)
4 - Gavin Thornbury (UCD/Leinster)
5- Sean McCarthy (Shannon/Munster)
6 - Conor Joyce (Malone/Ulster)(Captain)
7 - Daniel Leavy (UCD /Leinster)
8 - Jack O'Donoghue (UL Bohemians/Munster)

Replacements:
16 - George McGuigan (Newcastle Falcons/Exile)
17- Peter Dooley (Lansdowne/Leinster)
18 - Ryan Furniss (Worcester/Exile)
19- John Donnan (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
20- Josh Van Der Flier (UCD/Leinster)
21 - Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster)
22- Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster)
23- David Panter (Corinthians/Connacht)

Gotta say I'm surprised that Bolland isn't on the bench. Is he injured or just rested?

good news for ireland, fiji will miss two players, wont they!?
surprised new zealand didnt score more.

while NZ u20's scored nine tries to beat Fiji u20 59-6 in the Junior World Championship.

Two Fijiian players were red carded, and three received yellow cards. The two red cards were for tip and high tackles, two yellows for shoulders, and one yellow for a professional foul.
Fiji were down to 11 players at one stage.

Didn't see this but really glad they won. Shows what I know! Good to see Bolland staying on for the entire game as well and against a much bigger opponent. How did Roche and Leader do when they came on?

Fantastic win. A well deserved win, Oz second row will get banned for that stamp. Mark Roche and Darragh got on towards the end. Thought that the scrum was just terrific

Saw the last few minutes. Good win. Were a bit fortunate not to be caught near the end with the Australian number 4's indiscipline preventing what looked like a match winning try. One word of warning is that good wins in the 6 nations were followed by poor results in the next game so need to push on for the Fiji game and hopefully pick up another win with hopefully a bonus point.

FULL TIME: IRELAND 19 AUSTRALIA 15

only boland from connacht played. stayed on all game (apart from quick blood subbed)