Irish get Ruddock era off to a flyer

NEW Ireland U20 coach Mike Ruddock got off to a winning start, as his new-look side saw off Italy in a friendly at Donnybrook yesterday.

A side that did not contain a single Munster player in the starting line-up got off to a flying start with a Sam Coghlan Murray try, before a powerful scrum provided the platform to send Luke Marshall over for a 24th minute try.

Then, a huge hit by McKeon on Cosulich shook the ball free. Marshall saw the opportunity to move it right for centre Alex Kelly to travel 80 metres for Ireland’s third try. Jackson missed his third straight conversion.

Loosehead prop then Nicola Quaglio took advantage of an ill-advised throw to the tail of the lineout near the Irish line by hooker David Doyle. Guglielmo Palazzani added the extras to bring it back to 15-7.

But Ireland moved further ahead when Kelly offloaded slickly off the floor for Coghlan Murray to set off on a surge that took him round two defenders for his second try. Jackson’s conversion gave Ireland a 22-10 lead.

Eoin McKeown combined sweetly with his Connacht colleague Daniel Qualter for a terrific team try on the half-time whistle, Jackson converting for a 29-10 advantage.

The scoreless second half proved to be little more than exercise in defence for Jordi Murphy’s troops, but Ruddock praised their expansive first-half approach.

“We try to get guys into that space behind the defensive line either out wide or by using good footwork to get into the corridor either side of the defence and off-loading if it is on,” explained Ruddock. “I thought some of our play in the first half, some of the angles we cut were fantastic.”

IRELAND U20: M Sherlock (Clontarf/Leinster); C Gilroy (Dungannon/Ulster), A Kelly (UCD/Leinster), L Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster), S Coghlan Murray (UCD/Leinster); P Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster), P du Toit (UCD/Leinster); A Warwick (Ballymena/Ulster), D Doyle (UCD/Leinster), M Moore (Lansdowne/Leinster), I Henderson (Queen’s Univ/Ulster), D Qualter (Buccaneers/Connacht), M Kearney (Clontarf/Leinster), J Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster, capt), E McKeon (Galwegians/Connacht).

Replacements: S Buckley (Garryowen/Munster) for McKeon, M Dolan (Corinthians/Connacht) for du Toit, D Heffernan (Lansdowne/Connacht) for Kearney (all h/t), J Rael (Garryowen/Munster) for Doyle (47 mins), JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohs/Munster) for Marshall, C Hircock (Moulton College/Munster) for Kelly (both 53), L Kunz (Garryowen/Munster) for Coghlan Murray, C Marsh (Dublin Univ/Leinster) for Jackson, D Gallagher (Dublin Univ/Ulster) for Buckley (all 64), A Spring (Sligo/Connacht) for Moore, K McCall (Ballynahinch/Ulster) for Warwick (both 65).

Referee: L Colgan (IRFU)