what happened to our mighty under 20 team,, only 3players on

leinster on the other hand...........

ireland U-20 Squad (IRB Junior World Championship, South Africa 2012)
Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne /Leinster)
Shane Buckley (Garryowen/Munster)*
Jake Cawley (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Jordon Coghlan (UCD/Leinster)
Sam Coghlan Murray (UCD/Leinster)
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Aaron Conneely (Corinthians/Connacht)*
Barry Daly (UCD/Leinster)
Chris Farrell (Dungannon/Ulster)
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster)*
Conor Gilsenan (UCD/Mullingar /Leinster)
J.J. Hanrahan (UL Bohemians/Munster)*
Iain Henderson (Queens University /Ulster)*
Foster Horan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster)*
Shane Layden (Buccaneers /Connacht)
Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht)*
Cathal Marsh (Trinity College /Leinster)
Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster)
Des Merry (Clontarf/Leinster)
Peter Nelson (Dungannon/Ulster)
Alan O'Connor (UCD/Leinster)
Stuart Olding (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
James Rael (Garryowen/Munster)
Peter Reilly (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Niall Scannell (Dolphin RFC/Munster)
Mikey Sherlock (Clontarf/Leinster)
Josh Van Der Flier (UCD/Leinster)

connolly wrote: Just want to say all the best to the under 20's tonight. It should be a great game and hope they bring home the grand slam. With 6 Connacht lads in the squad this should be more hyped up

Indeed, the Connacht Branch office seem to have gone on holidays with the 6N on, very little output at all recently on the Offy site.

Just want to say all the best to the under 20's tonight. It should be a great game and hope they bring home the grand slam. With 6 Connacht lads in the squad this should be more hyped up

just watched the under 20's great win by ireland. won 12 13. look at horans try if you get the chance. great.

conneely got yellow early in the second half and never came back on. was subbed

I agree with Deckoo. Leader would be an option at 13, as Paddy did alright in the running game but we obviously need a backup kicker given his lack of accuracy against Wales. Glad to see Finn involved.

Borders no.2 wrote: Pity this won't be on the tv, I think we'll see a better Ireland performance than last Friday, could be a good one.

Its going to be shown online I think..... yes thats right www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/live.html

Pity this won't be on the tv, I think we'll see a better Ireland performance than last Friday, could be a good one.

God to see the Connacht quotient increasing...


They'll need to up their intsity and accuracy by 30-40% for this one, much like the Seniors of they don't take it to the French right from the off they'll get blown away. Same game plan as two years ago with a bit more clinical execution of scoring opportunities would do...

Team to play France U-20

15 Shane Layden (Buccaneers - Connacht)
14 Conor Finn (Buccaneers - Connacht)
13 Chris Farrell (Dungannon - Ulster)
12 JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemian - Munster)
11 Sam Coghlan - Murray (UCD - Leinster)
10 Paddy Jackson (Dungannon - Ulster) (C)
9 Luke McGrath (UCD - Leinster)

1 Kyle McCall (Ballynahinch - Ulster)
2 Niall Scannell (Dolphin - Munster)
3 Peter Reilly (Lansdowne - Leinster)
4 Iain Henderson (QUB - Ulster)
5 Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers - Connacht)
6 Conor Gilsenan (UCD - Leinster)
8 Jack Conan (Old Belvedere - Leinster)
7 Aaron Conneely (Corinthians - Connacht)

Replacements:
16 Des Merrey (Clontarf - Leinster)
17 James Rael (Garryowen - Munster)
18 Diarmuid Higgins (Buccaneers - Connacht)
19 Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne - Leinster)
20 Jordan Coughlan (UCD - Leinster)
21 Kieran Marmion (Corinthians - Connacht)
22 Cathal Marsh (Dublin University - Leinster)
23 Foster Horan (Lansdowne - Leinster)

Marmion dropped, but expected. Congrats to Conor Finn and Diarmuid Higgins.

Qualter for me is a lad who is to used to physically dominating his rival second row's cause of his size that's not going to work as he moves up level's; that said he's young so time is on his side. As for McGrath he's highly though off in Leinster. He's one of the reasons POD was let go as they felt McGrath was the superior product. The thing that really interests me is that apparently he's been trained as a french 9 i.e someone who can go between 9 & 10 with ease like Yachvilli or Parra for France. Now that's forward thinking by Leinster.

Not a great game, Wales were very poor on the night but could easily have won it through our ineptitude. As above I have to say McGrath was a player who really impressed me off the bench, have heard a good bit about him and he certainly made a difference last night capped off with a superb snap drop goal putting us 5 clear late on and being fair should start against France.

Thought Conneely was excellent, Layden was very assured at full back, in a game of such poor quality, riddled with poor errors, his solid performance was worthy of note.

Marmion has potential but needs to get the ball away quicker, Qualter is a player I've seen a good bit of now and he needs to show more for me, still young but as Seapoint said below should be imposing himself on a game like last night especially having experience at this level last year.

Thought the 4 Connacht lads played well. Qualter was ok, the Ulster lad beside him played better, Marmion played alright but McGrath made a huge impact, Laydon was really solid. Great to see him get MOM by doing all the basics right without him being as explosive as he can be, and connelly was very good. I think if you made him captain he would be even more contolled (ala O Concrete) and clean up some of the scrappiness up front.

So Ruddock changed his team significantly from match to match last year. So I reckon Leader should be brought into the equation for the 13 slot, plus as a place kicking option he would take the pressure off Jackson. I would als throw finn in on the wing because i thought our wings were weak at best!

Greendragon wrote: To be honest I didn't see much to get exited about on either side, for me Hanrahan was MOM Laydon was in the right place at the right time for his try which he finished well.Coneely also had a good game which as far as I am concearned would also have put him ahead of the MOM.But as he scored the try who am I to comment.

Awful game not helped at all by the quality of the surface, which is very poor, if the IRFU are going to make Dubarry an international venue even at U-20 level then they need to lay a test class surface.

Apart from the pitch our game management was very poor throughout the game, Wales should have been dead and buried by half time given the quantity of possession and territory Ireland enjoyed. The missed kicks by Jackson (which were absolute sitters at any level) undermined the considerable dominance Irealand enjoyed in the first half.

Of the Connacht lads, Qualter was far too quiet escpecially given he was playing in front of a home town crowd (I expected him to really lead the fight against the Welsh), Marmion took too many lateral steps with the ball and lacked variety, Conneelly was very good across the board and Layden couldn't really be faulted.

Leyden didn't do anything particularly outstanding, just got his basics right (fielding the ball, making his tackles and not dropping the pass from Hanrahan. But what amazed me most was how the winger Barry Daly stayed on all game, two tackles aside he was appalling.

To be honest I didn't see much to get exited about on either side, for me Hanrahan was MOM Laydon was in the right place at the right time for his try which he finished well.Coneely also had a good game which as far as I am concearned would also have put him ahead of the MOM.But as he scored the try who am I to comment.

Good on him and with luck this will give EE the impetus to throw him in more this season.

Congrats shane leydon on man of the match performance!