Clarke names 26-man squad for World Cup

IRELAND Under-20 rugby coach Allen Clarke has included six Munster-based players in the 26-man national squad for next months IRB Junior WorldChampionship in Japan.

Garryowen trio Andrew Burke, Conor Murray and Ronan O’Mahony are joined by UCC’s David O’Callaghan and UL Bohs’ Brian O’Hara with Cork Constitution’s Peter O’Mahony skippering the side.

Ireland are placed in Pool A alongside Argentina, New Zealand and Uruguay and the Irish captain says that the June 5 opener against Argentina will be a particularly tough encounter.

“We have drawn a very physical group but as ‘Clarkey’ said, we aren’t looking anywhere past Argentina at the moment,” O’Mahony said.

“I’ve seen some of their stuff last year. They are a very physical side and have a big pack. They are well able to throw the ball about and they will be a very tough side to beat. I know the lads struggled last year and I can’t see them being much different this year – they are going to be very physical and obviously very tough to beat.”

Ireland produced a very positive Six Nations campaign but this failed to bare any silverware after a disappointing 35-20 loss to Scotland on March 12th with Clarke’s charges eventually finishing the campaign in second place behind France.

O’Mahony says it was a devastating blow, but has left his side well grounded as they focus on the upcoming World Championship.

“It was a huge game for everybody. T really – that one game over in Scotland really wrote off the Grand Slam, the Triple Crown and the Championship all in one go. That was tough to take from our part but we are happy with the way we have developed since then.

“It might take a bit of pressure off us ourselves going into the World Cup not as Grand Slam winners it will certainly take a lot of the pressure off and we can just work on ourselves and we are just looking forward to getting over there at this stage.”