Ireland U20s wary of improving Italian side ahead of World Rugby Championship

Evan O'Connell will captain the side in their Pool B opener against their Six Nations rivals at the DHL Stadium. 

TEAM CAPTAIN: Evan O'Connell will captain the side in their Pool B opener against their Six Nations rivals at the DHL Stadium. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Ireland have never lost to Italy at U20 level but new head coach Willie Faloon and his management team will have been drilling it into his players for the past few weeks just how fortunate they were to escape with a win when they met in Cork in the Six Nations earlier this year.

Ireland, runners-up last year when the World Rugby U20 Championship was also held in South Africa, will be expected to get this season’s competition off to a winning start this Saturday afternoon at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, against a side who have never finished higher than eighth in the twelve-team competition.

But the good work carried out at underage in Italy, a lot of which was put in place by former IRFU elite player and coach development officer Stephen Aboud, is starting to pay dividends and the Italian team they will face this time should be much stronger than previous years when the Italians have featured in the relegation game in six of the 13 seasons of this tournament which started in 2008 but which did not take place in 2020, ’21 and ’23 due to covid.

Italy won two of their Six Nations games — beating World champions France in Beziers 23-20 for their first ever win on French soil and hammering Scotland 47-14 — while it took a late try from Seán Edogbo, younger brother of Munster’s Edwin, to snatch a 23-22 win for Ireland over them at Virgin Media Park.

England pipped Ireland to the Six Nations crown and since then Faloon has stepped up from defence coach to the top job after Richie Murphy took over from Dan McFarland in Ulster.

Murphy’s son Jack will be a key figure for Ireland at this tournament where they have five survivors from the squad which reached last year’s final before being beaten 50-14 by a rampant French side in the final.

The experience of skipper Evan O’Connell, No.8 Brian Gleeson, hooker Danny Sheahan, and centres Hugh Gavin and Sam Berman will be central to Ireland’s success. O’Connell is a nephew of Paul O’Connor and Sheahan is a nephew of former Munster and Irish hooker Frankie Sheahan.

As always, each team will play five matches in the tournament. Ireland will meet Georgian next Thursday and their final pool game will be on Tuesday, July 9, against Australia. The semi-finals and finals will then take place as each team is graded from one to twelve.

Ian Keatley continues as attack and backs coach and Aaron Dundon in charge of the forwards, with former Ulster scrum-half Neil Doak bringing a wealth of coaching experience after coming on board as senior coach.

Ireland have prepared for this tournament with a number of friendlies and Faloon said preparation has gone well and they are good to go after arriving in South Africa.

“It has been a competitive couple of weeks as the squad have pushed each other in preparation for the tournament and we know we'll need to grow and evolve as a team from the Six Nations for what will be a challenging couple of weeks against quality opposition in South Africa," said Faloon.

IRELAND U20s (v Italy): B O'Connor (Munster), D Colbert (Leinster), F Treacy (Connacht), S Berman (Leinster), H McLaughlin (Leinster), J Murphy (Leinster), O Coffey (Leinster); J Boyd (Ulster), D Sheahan (Munster), P Bell (Sale Sharks), A Spicer (Leinster), E O'Connell, capt (Munster), S Edogbo (Munster), M Flynn (Connacht), L Murphy (Munster).

Replacements: S Smyth (Leinster), E Calvey (Munster), A Sparrow (Leinster), J McKillop (Ulster), B Ward (Ulster), J O'Riordan (Munster), S Naughton (Connacht), H Gavin (Connacht).

* Denotes uncapped player at U20 level