Nigel Carolan may be in charge of the Irish U20s at a world championship for the first time but the Galwayman has been involved with enough underage national sides to know they face a tough test against Argentina today, 3.30pm (live on TG4).

Under 20 Six Nations: Italy 15 Ireland 47: Nigel Carolan’s reign as Ireland U-20 coach got off to a perfect start in dreadful conditions in northern Italy last night as seven different players scored tries.

Irish rugby was relatively slow to cotton onto the benefits accrued from assimilating players with southern hemisphere backgrounds into the national team, but that process has belatedly taken hold in recent years.

Ireland Women's Coach Tom Tierney has named six uncapped players in their squad for their 6 Nations opener against Italy in Florence on Friday night (6pm Irish Time).

More misery for Munster with the selection of just four of their players on Nigel Carolan’s expanded Ireland squad of 30 for the U20 Six Nations.

The Ireland Under-20s' first ever IRB Junior World Championship semi-final ended in defeat last night as defending champions England proved a class apart in Auckland.

The Ireland Under-20s got the job done in difficult weather conditions as they defeated Fiji 38-0 to qualify for the IRB Junior World Championship semi-finals for the first time.

France Under-20s 23 Ireland Under-20s 13

U20 SIX NATIONS:

U20 SIX NATIONS:

Ireland 34 Scotland 7

The late, great Karl Mullen once summed up Irish rugby as a combination of ‘boot, bollock and bite’ but if there is a dominant theme to sides in green these days it is the strength of their back rows.

Munster 12 Leinster 34

Belvedere gained some measure of compensation for their tame exit out of the Leinster Senior Cup by edging out Cistercian Roscrea in the Senior Plate final yesterday.

Roscrea must feel aggrieved by the 17 minutes of injury-time played before St Michael’s fly-half Ross Byrne landed an equalising penalty to send this Leinster Schools Senior Cup first round tie to a replay at Maynooth yesterday.

MORE than two-thirds of senior Irish businesspeople have seen major changes in the complexities of doing business.

COACHED by former Ireland star Eric Miller, St Gerard’s exacted speedy revenge on Roscrea for their Schools Senior Cup semi-final defeat by winning an absorbing Leinster Senior League final at Donnybrook yesterday.

THIS one-sided Leinster Schools Senior Cup final ended in a victory for tournament favourites Clongowes Wood College, who retained their title with a scintillating display of power and precision at the RDS yesterday.