Ireland U20’s face England U20’s later this afternoon in the 5th – 8th place play offs in the Junior World Cup.

Six Nations opponents Ireland and England met previously in the pool stages in South Africa, with the English staging a second half comeback to take a 20-15 win.

For this weekend’s rematch, the Irish management have made a total of nine changes in personnel and two positional switches.

The match sees all of Ulster’s representation in the starting line up with Dungannon’s Peter Nelson reverting to full back, Quins Stuart Olding makes his first start moving into the centre alongside Dungannon’s Chris Farrell and Queen’s Iain Henderson moves to the backrow adding some more grunt to the Ireland pack.

In other changes Barry Daly joins Foster Horan to complete the back-three with Coghlan-Murray dropping out of the squad.

Leading scorer JJ Hanrahan and Kieran Marmion return to the team at out-half and scrum half respectively.

Captain Niall Scannell and Tadhg Furlong resume up front, joining Des Merrey in the same front row that started against South Africa and England in the pool stages.

Tadhg Beirne has been named alongside Alan O’Connor in the second row with regular lock Henderson moved to blindside flanker where he takes over from Aaron Conneely.

Jordan Coghlan and number 8 Jack Conan, who captained Ireland against Italy, complete the back row trio.

Meanwhile, England Under-20 head coach Rob Hunter has made nine changes to the side that lost out to South Africa in their final pool game.

Ireland U20’s threw away a golden chance to beat England in the pool stages and the make up of the back line indicates that Ireland are preparing to play an expansive game against the solid English side who will be smarting following their defeat to the hosts last time out. Ireland looked sharp in the previous game against the English until the appalling conditions at Stellenbosch began to take their toll.

With the game now moved to the Cape Town Stadium, the wide open spaces of the ground should suit Ireland making them marginal favourites in what promises to be an exciting game.

Hopefully we’ve got the gremlins sorted from the last match and we’ll be posting live updates from the game.

IRELAND		ENGLAND
Peter Nelson	15	Ben Ransom
Barry Daly	14	Will Addison
Stuart Olding	13	Sam Hill
Chris Farrell	12	Ryan Mills
Foster Horan	11	Josh Bassett
JJ Hanrahan	10	Henry Slade
Kieran Marmion	9	Ben Spencer
Des Merry	1	Alec Hepburn
Niall Scannell (C)	2	Nathan Morris
Tadhg Furlong	3	Kyle Sinckler
Alan O’Connor	4	Dom Barrow
Tadhg Beirne	5	George Merrick
Iain Henderson	6	Dave Sisi
Jordon Coghlan	7	Chris Walker (C)
Jack Conan	8	Jack Clifford
James Rael	16	Max Crumpton
Peter Reilly	17	Luke Cowan-Dickie
Jake Cawley	18	Ross Harrison
Shane Buckley	19	Billy Vunipola
Aaron Conneely	20	Ben Nutley
Luke McGrath	21	Dan Robson
Jack Carty	22	Tommy Bell
Mikey Sherlock	23	Marland Yarde

Ireland U20’s will play France for 5th place on Friday after defeating England 27 – 12 in a highly entertaining encounter at the Cape Town Stadium in the 2012 JWC. The win against England guarantees Ireland a top 6 seeding for next years competition, which in theory means that their group should be slightly easier than it has been in recent years.

Ireland started the game full of intent and the Irish youngsters were first on the scoreboard with wing Barry Daly intercepting a long pass around the half way line to out pace the defence and score on the 8th minute.  JJ Hanrahan added the extras and Ireland led 7 – 0.

England pushed for territorial advantage but Ireland held up reasonably comfortably and always looked sharper and more inventive than their counterparts and were always able to relieve the pressure.

A nice break off the back of a retreating scrum, by half back Kieran Marmion, was well supported by second rows Alan O’Connor and Tadhg Beirne, with Ulster’s Iain Henderson on hand to take the pass off Beirne and power over the line for Ireland’s second score. Hanrahan added the extras to give Ireland a 14 point lead.

Having got themselves into a similar position in the pool game and then relaxing the Irish youngsters learnt their lesson and kept the pressure on the England side forcing a high error count and a fair amount of niggle from the English side. Hanrahan took advantage to slot over a penalty on the 35th minute to extend Ireland’s lead to 17.

However it was Ireland who felt the wrath of the referee with Henderson carded on the stroke of half time for taking a player out in the air and with no further scores the teams turned round with the scoreboard reading Ireland 17 England 0

England hit back shortly after the re-start with Chris Walker going over for an unconverted try in the corner to take the score to 17 – 5 but this time round Ireland held their nerve and redoubled their efforts.

The Irish pack created havoc at the breakdown and England struggled to cope with first Walker and then a petulant Marland Yarde sent to the sin bin. Hanrahan took full advantage first knocked over a penalty for Walkers offence and then exploited the space created by Yarde’s absence to find Jordan Coghlan with an expert cross field kick for the flanker to dash over. Hanrahan converted and Ireland had the game in the bag at 27 – 5.

England hit back with a late try and conversion from Henry Slade but it was too little too late with Ireland comfortably closing out the game 27 – 12 to guarantee Ireland their highest finish in the JWC.

IRELAND: Peter Nelson, Barry Daly, Stuart Olding, Chris Farrell, Foster Horan, JJ Hanrahan, Kieran Marmion, Des Merry, Niall Scannell (C), Tadhg Furlong, Alan O’Connor, Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Jordon Coghlan, Jack Conan. Replacement: James Rael, Peter Reilly, Jake Cawley, Shane Buckley, Aaron Conneely, Luke McGrath, Jack Carty, Mikey Sherlock