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. 

NO.	PLAYER	CLUB	PROVINCE	CAP	MIN	TRY	PTS
15	Rob Russell	Dublin University	Leinster	5	65	0	0
14	Angus Kernohan	Queen’s University	Ulster	9	502	0	0
13	Liam Turner	Dublin University	Leinster	6	480	0	0
12	Stewart Moore	Malone	Ulster	1	49	1	5
11	Jonathan Wren	Cork Constitution	Munster	6	480	2	10
10	Jake Flannery	Shannon	Munster	6	457	1	11
9	Craig Casey	Shannon	Munster	4	296	2	10
1	Josh Wycherley	Young Munster	Munster	6	398	2	10
2	Dylan Tierney-Martin	Corinthians	Connacht	7	416	5	25
3	Tom Clarkson	Dublin University	Leinster	6	467	1	5
4	Charlie Ryan	UCD	Leinster	11	571	0	0
5	Ryan Baird	Dublin University	Leinster	3	132	0	0
6	David McCann	Banbridge	Ulster	4	100	2	10
7	Ronan Watters	St Mary’s College	Leinster	2	64	0	0
8	John Hodnett	UCD	Munster	6	470	2	10
16	John McKee	Old Belvedere	Leinster	4	55	0	0
17	Michael Milne	UCD	Leinster	4	39	0	0
18	Charlie Ward	Clontarf	Leinster	1	2	0	0
19	Declan Adamson	Clontarf	Leinster	1	7	0	0
20	Niall Murray	Buccaneers	Connacht	6	332	0	0
22	Ciaran Booth	Sale Sharks	IQ Rugby	1	7	0	0
23	Thomas Ahern	Shannon	Munster	0	0	0	0
24	Colm Reilly	Buccaneers	Connacht	2	30	1	5
25	Ben Healy	Garryowen	Munster	4	181	1	35
26	Cormac Foley	St Mary’s College	Leinster	5	154	1	5

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