Ireland U20: Three Ulster players to start against Australia

The Ireland U20 team to play Australia in their second game of the World Rugby U20 Championship has been named. The match kicks off at 14:30 (UK/IRE) and should be available in Northern Ireland as a live stream. 

From an Ulster perspective.

Iwan Hughes (Ballynahinch) and Azur Allison (Ballymena) drop out of contention due to injury. Unfortunately for Hughes,  his tournament is over following a finger injury but Allison may return after following return to play protocols. 

However David McCann (Banbridge), Stewart Moore (Malone) look to have joined Angus Kernohan (Queen’s) as first choice regulars with all three retaining their starting positions for what now has become the Pool B crunch match. 

The rest of the team.

Sean French, who came on in the second half against England, sustained a facial injury that rules him out of the rest of the tournament with Hughes. 

Rob Russell comes into the starting XV in place of Hughes at fullback with Kernohan and Jonathan Wren again named on the wings.

The rest of the back line is unchanged with Craig Casey and Jake Flannery named in the halfbacks and Moore and Liam Turner in the centre.

The impressive front five remains the same with Josh Wycherley, Dylan Tierney-Martin and Thomas Clarkson in the front row while captain Charlie Ryan and Ryan Baird pack down in the second row.

Josh Hodnett moves from 7 to 8 in place of Allison. Ronan Watters comes in at open-side while McCann starts at 6 in what looks like a well balanced back row that combined well against England.

Aaron O’Sullivan and Max O’Reilly have been called up to the squad in place of French and Hughes but will not be in the side this weekend which with Allison also unavailable leaves Ireland with a bench of ten players to choose their eight replacements from. 

Ireland U20 Squad Stats.

The up to date stats for the starting squad and possible replacements are shown below. 

We’ll have both teams and our match preview up on Saturday morning.