Irish U20s unchanged

Coach Eric Elwood has named an unchanged Ireland U20 side, going for a Grand Slam, to take on Italy in the U20 Six Nations on Friday.

Elwood said: “We all know what a great opportunity this is, but rather than focus on the prize at the end, we are looking for the players to focus on the performance.

“In the last game against Scotland, we probably had a certain amount of nerves and we played a little bit within ourselves in the first half, but the second half was a vast improvement and near the levels of where we wanted.

“Italy will be a big challenge and will be very physical up front as they have shown in their previous games, so we have to be able to meet that challenge.”

Ireland U20 (v Italy): Felix Jones, Shane Monahan, Darren Cave, Aidan Wynne, Keith Earls, Ian Keatley, Paul O’Donohoe, Cian Healy, Richard Sweeney, Jamie Hagan, Conor McInerney, Andrew Browne, Thomas Anderson, Kevin Sheahan, David Pollock (captain).