O’Sullivan longs for return of A games to ‘blood’ young guns

IRISH coach Eddie O’Sullivan longs for the day when the A International Championship resumes.

Ireland play a once-off game against France at Donnybrook on Friday night and O’Sullivan can’t wait to see a mixture of young talent and experienced talent perform against the French.

“We have gone for a very mixed bag. It’s not quite as it seems because there are some guys training with the senior side at the moment who could find themselves in the Irish side if there was an injury. A few of them are not actually in the A side.

“There are a lot of young guys out there whom we need to start looking at and this A game was set up for that. It would be an opportunity missed not to see these young guys step up a level and see how they go.

“There is quite a bit of inexperience in the side, particularly in the backs. There are a few hardened warriors in the pack and quite a lot of experience in the replacements.

“That means that if someone is having a particularly difficult day we can put somebody in who has been around the block.

“To make a point, we have Paddy Wallace starting at 10 and we have Paul Burke on the bench. We know what Paul can do and he has the experience. We know that he is in the pecking order for the senior team, but given our lack of games I felt it right to give the younger guys a chance, see what they can do and make some decisions based on that.

“It’s only one game this season, we all know what Paul brings to the table but we don’t know what Paddy, or other youngsters, might offer to us.

“That was my logic with regard to this team and if it was a series of five games I would probably have looked at the issue in a different light. It’s not a question of beating France in this A game although that would be nice. It’s more about getting information down the track.”

IRELAND A: B. Cunningham (Ulster), T. Bowe (Ulster), Kieran Lewis (Leinster), D. Quinlan (Leinster), A. Horgan (Munster), P. Wallace (Ulster), K. Campbell (Ulster); R. McCormack (Ulster), B. Jackman (Connacht), S. Best (Ulster), M. McCullough (Ulster); B. Casey (London Irish); A. Quinlan (Munster), S. Jennings (Leinster), R. Wilson (Ulster).

Replacements: P. Shields (Ulster), R. Hogan (Connacht), B. Gissing (Leinster), D. Wallace (Munster), B. O’Riordan (Leinster), P. Burke (Munster), S. Payne (Munster).

Ireland U21 squad (v France Thomond Park, Friday, 7.30pm.)

Forwards: J. A. (Belfast Harlequins), E. Bracken (Buccaneers), R. Caldwell (Dungannon), M. Diffley (Buccaneers), S. Ferris (Dungannon), O. Hennessy (Dungannon), C. Henry (Malone), M. Melbourne (Garryowen), B. McNamee (Northampton), J. Merrigan (Corinthians), R. Quinn (UCC), L. Stevenson (Belfast Harlequins).

Backs: K. Geraghty (London Irish), B. Keeshan (Cork Constitution), P. Marshall (Ballynahinch), R. McCarron (UCD), P. McKenzie (Belfast Harlequins), D. O’Leary (UCC), D. Riordan (Corinthians), G. Stafford (Lansdowne), G. Steenson (Dungannon), A. Trimble (Ballymena).