Ireland U20 for SA

15 - Tiernan O'Halloran (Galwegians/Connacht)
14 - Andrew Conway (Blackrock/Leinster)
13 - Brendan Macken (Blackrock/Leinster)
12 - Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster)
11 – Andrew Boyle (UCD/Leinster)
10 - Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster)
9 - Kieran Marmion (UWIC/Exile)
1 - James Tracy (UCD/Leinster)
2 - Niall Annett (Belfast Harlequuins/Ulster)
3 - Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Michael Kearney (Clontarf/Leinster)
5 - Iain Henderson (Queen's University/Ulster)
6 - Eoin McKeon (Galwegians/Connacht)
7 - David Doyle (UCD/Leinster)
8 - Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - Finlay Bealham (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
17 - Conor Carey (Ballymena/Ulster)
18 – Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 – Shane Buckley (Garryowen/Munster)
20 - Peter du Toit (UCD/Leinster)
21 - James McKinney (Queen's University/Ulster)
22 - Alex Kelly (UCD - Leinster)


No Hanrahan in the 22 is surprising as is the continued selection of Marmion over DuToit.

I see Doyle getting his tournament start... at 7!

No Gilroy? Am I missing something?

pete (buachaill on eirne) wrote:No Gilroy? Am I missing something?

I would imagine Gilroy has been recalled by Ulster. Pre-season for him is meant to start on Monday.

Why not Marshall, Jackson, Arnett so?

Because they aren't nailed-on first team players. Gilroy is now a nailed on starter, considering we won't have Trimble or Danielli for the first two months of the season and he's been in and around the Ulster first team since November.

would they not give him some time off at all notch

player burnout and all that we have been spouting

When will Gilroy get his rest period? He's gonna have to keep working right through the season. I'd imagine he'll need a few weeks off around Christmas.

Notch wrote:Because they aren't nailed-on first team players. Gilroy is now a nailed on starter, considering we won't have Trimble or Danielli for the first two months of the season and he's been in and around the Ulster first team since November.

In that case why not Conway too?
Not a certain starter but could well be depending on injuries and players at the RWC

D24tress wrote:would they not give him some time off at all notch

player burnout and all that we have been spouting

I would have thought he should never have been involved in the U20 World Cup in the first place- I'm quite annoyed at how this has been handled. This is the reason Ireland are considering pulling out of the tournament.

pete wrote:In that case why not Conway too?
Not a certain starter but could well be depending on injuries and players at the RWC?

In that case, why not the whole team? Like I said the IRFU are considering withdrawing from the tournament altogether.

https://www.606v2.com/t7616-mass-u20-jwc-exodus

I back the IRFUs decision by the way, the tournament is a useful development tool but player welfare must come first.

I think the tournament is very important just need restructuring of fixtures.

A game every 6 days is the most frequent I'd feel comfortable with.
I have played games 2 days in a row (80mins in each) and felt like I would die come Sunday evening

You can see Ulster's pre-season schedule here;

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/9425.php

The majority of the squad is already back in pre-season training. A lot of our players in the U20s will be needed in September. I think this World Cup campaign was a bad idea- albeit some of the U20s got a two week break at the end of the season after our ML semi-final defeat.

Sorry I was wrong;

Ulster has nine representatives in the Ireland U20 squad participating in the Junior World Championship in Italy in June. They will get time off after that tournament and will re-join the squad on 18th July.

Glad to see some common sense! Just hope this doesn't have a knock-on effect on our campaign at the start of next season.

Right so just to clarify then, why has Gilroy been left out?

He needs a rest and is certain to play in all Ulster games up to the end of the World Cup. That is a lot of rugby for one so young

So he's back home resting and not in pre season training?

Given we'll miss both Danielli and Trimble during the WC who our other wing going to be? Gaston? D'Arcy? Spence? Other?

I think Gaston or Spence Willy. Outside shot- Chris Cochrane. With the centres we have, maybe Spence will move out. Certainly a lot more cover at centre at the beginning of the season.

D'Arcy will play fullback initially as Payne will arrive later and take some time to settle in.

Geoff do you know when the Pro12 fixtures come out?

Spence will probably be outside.

Marshall, Whitten, Cave and Wallace will all be there to cover centre during the World Cup. Spence can play at winger where you will suffer a bit.

red_stag wrote:Marshall, Whitten, Cave and Wallace will all be there to cover centre during the World Cup. Spence can play at winger where you will suffer a bit.

Inside info Stag?

Geoff told me

According to the commentators in the NZ vs Aus match it is 31-3to SA, although with these guys track record it is probably the other way round.
Wales have already lost to Fiji.

Final Score 57-15.

Rava wrote:Final Score 57-15.

Jackson and McKeon got the Tries for Ireland not that it matters.

Should have had more Munster players

Sure haven't we taken on Australia and New Zealands senior teams in recent seasons. We'd have been well capable of dispatching the Saffers

A weak pack with no depth is the reason this group has struggled especially when you consider the quality that is in the backline.

red_stag wrote:Geoff told me

Hey no I didn't

I wouldn't take him but I am convinced he will go

Centres we are fine - Spence, Marshall, Cave with Whitten as back up

Wing - Gilroy with either Spence going wide or Cochrane/ and Gaston fighting it out.
As mention D'Arcy will keep 15 warm till Payne turns up

Oh no . . .rumbled by Geoff :run2:

But yes they are fine regardless. Actually where will each province get hit hardest during RWC:

Munster - second row
Leinster - scrumhalf
Ulster - winger
Connacht - not really an issue

MBTGOG wrote:A weak pack with no depth is the reason this group has struggled especially when you consider the quality that is in the backline.

From what I've seen, which wasn't that much, there was also a failure to execute the basics at the contact area and a lack of temperment and match control specifically at 8, 9, 10 but generally too. We looked superb in the backline in attack but less organised in defence.

I haven't watched alot of the U-20's and don't follow the underage stuff much so perhaps I'm talking nonsence but is Ruddock the right man to be coaching our young guys?

I mean our skill levels and enterprise in attack were impressive, which you tend to see from Welsh sides but our hunger and aggression in the contact, which is a traditional Irish strength seemed to be missing in the matches I watched. We were very exciting to watch but I thought we were a little too cavalier at times when we need to be a bit more controlled and conservative.

What I think Rodders is that Ruddock will have learned a lot from this tournament, especially about rotation of the front five and creating greater depth there if he can through the 6 Nations.

While I was happy with the appointment at first, I think next I would like to see a young innovative Irish coach come in but that's heading into a different topic.

I don't think we lost our hunger and aggression at the contact and we did quite well there against the English and against the South Africans but in the initial contact, we were over powered. I'm not too worried as that can be improved over the next few years but the basic core skills are there and over time that will be supplemented by increased physical competency and we'll be alright.

Anyway, one year, we might have a bad pack but like last year, we had a pretty decent one.

I understand that we were overpowered by the larger sides and there's not much Ruddock can do about genetics however our defence generally was very standoffish against SA allowing the boks to get a lot of go forward momentum.

A lot of our basics weren't great like body angles going into contact, which contributed to our forwards getting driven back. Our back row was very slow to the contact area and I didn't think we had a good kicking game. We forced the play to much which put us under pressure.

I didn't see this game but the first game against the boks was there for the taking if we'd had a bit more composure.

Actually Ulster are missing all of their front row but fortunately the back up

McAllister, Kyriacou, Fitzpatrick is pretty solid

3rd level - Black, Brady, Cronin

I wouldn't even say it's genetics just better strength and conditioning programmes put in at an earlier age in England and South Africa.

I'm not overly worried as I think we showed that if that problem can be fixed and we've seen at senior level it's not something we really struggle with, we had some cracking footballing players in the side.