Ireland U20 Head Coach Noel McNamara has confirmed the 28-man squad to travel to Argentina on Wednesday ahead of the U20 World Championships kicking off on Tuesday 4th of June.
The Squad contains five Ulster players with Azur Allison (Ballymena), David McCann (Banbridge), Iwan Hughes (Ballynahinch), Angus Kernohan (Queen’s University) and Stewart Moore (Malone) all making the trip.
Ulster Players for Argentina!
Allison, Hughes and Moore will be looking to pick up their first Ireland U20 caps on this adventure. Moore was involved with the squad during the Six Nations but didn’t get on the pitch but Kernohan added another 233 minutes and McCann 27 minutes during the highly successful series.
Banbridge’s Callum Reid who picked up 53 minutes during the Six Nations misses out at the minute though there is a chance he’ll still be involved.
The travelling squad and the minutes played this season are shown below.
| PLAYER | CLUB | PROVINCE | MINS | T | C | P | PTS |
| Liam Turner | Dublin University | Leinster | 400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jonathan Wren | Cork Constitution | Munster | 400 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Charlie Ryan | UCD | Leinster | 398 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| John Hodnett | UCD | Munster | 390 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Tom Clarkson | Dublin University | Leinster | 389 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Jake Flannery | Shannon | Munster | 377 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Josh Wycherley | Young Munster | Munster | 331 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Dylan Tierney-Martin | Corinthians | Connacht | 329 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Niall Murray | Buccaneers | Connacht | 325 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Angus Kernohan | Queen’s University | Ulster | 233 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Craig Casey | Shannon | Munster | 216 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Sean French | Cork Constitution | Munster | 192 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cormac Foley | St Mary’s College | Leinster | 154 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Ben Healy | Garryowen | Munster | 150 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 22 |
| Rob Russell | Dublin University | Leinster | 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Baird | Dublin University | Leinster | 59 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| John McKee | Old Belvedere | Leinster | 55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Colm Reilly | Buccaneers | Connacht | 30 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| David McCann | Banbridge | Ulster | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michael Milne | UCD | Leinster | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ronan Watters | St Mary’s College | Leinster | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Iwan Hughes* | Ballynahinch | Ulster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Declan Adamson* | Clontarf | Leinster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thomas Ahern* | Shannon | Munster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Azur Allison* | Ballymena | Ulster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ciaran Booth* | Sale Sharks | IQ Rugby | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Charlie Ward* | Clontarf | Leinster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stewart Moore* | Malone | Ulster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The following players miss out on the trip due to injury: Harry Byrne, Brian Deeny, David Hawkshaw, Martin Moloney, Scott Penny and Conor Phillips.
Ireland are drawn in Pool A alongside England, Australia and Italy. Despite Ireland’s outstanding success in the Six Nations, where they beat England and Italy, they will still find this a difficult competition given the abrasive nature of this competition with only four days between fixtures during the pool stages and five days during the knockout stages.
Ireland’s Pool A fixtures are shown below.
- England v Ireland. Tuesday 4th June 2019. KO: 19:30 (UK.IRE)
- Australia v Ireland. Sunday 8th June 2019. KO: 14:30 (UK/IRE)
- Italy v Ireland. Wednesday 12th June 2019. KO: 14:30 (UK/IRE)
All the Pool fixtures will be played at Club de Rugby Atheneo Immaculada, Santa Fe, Argentina.
The teams will then move to either the Racecourse Stadium or Club Old Resian, both in Rosario, for the knockout stages on the following dates.
- Semi-Finals / Play-Offs – Monday 17th June 2019
- Finals Day – Saturday 22nd June 2019
Broadcast Information
Ireland’s games will be shown live on Eir Sport in the Republic of Ireland, with ITV holding UK TV rights. If games are not shown live on TV, they will be streamed via World Rugby Online Channels. With Ireland in the same group as England there’s a fair chance us Nordies will get good coverage on ITV.