The headlines from the Ireland Under-20 squad announcement is that Evan O’Connell, one of five returning players from last year’s Six Nations Grand Slam winners that reached the World Championship final, will captain of the 31-man squad. Ian Keatley replaces Mark Sexton as backs coach, Sam Berman (hamstring) is missing through injury, and there are six players playing a year young for this age-grade.
O’Connell, son of former UL Bohemian Justin, and a nephew of Ireland forwards coach Paul, highlights some high-profile family connections. Outhalf Jack Murphy is the son of head coach Richie; scrumhalf Will Wootton the young brother of former Munster wing, Alex; Jacob Boyd is a son of former Ulster prop, Clem; Byrn Ward is a son of former Ireland flanker Andy and brother of Sevens international Zac, while UCC’s Seán Edogbo is Munster secondrow Edwin’s younger brother.
[ Evan O’Connell to captain Ireland Under-20 squad laden with pedigreeOpens in new window ]
Outstanding number eight Brian Gleeson and fullback Ben O’Connor have played eight and four matches respectively for the Munster senior team this season, while Queen’s University student Joe Hopes made his Ulster senior debut in November. Hooker Danny Sheahan, a nephew of former Ireland international Frankie, is another returnee.
Richie Murphy, who had led Ireland to back-to-back Grand Slams and a World Junior Championship final, is broadly optimistic about this year’s group. “It’s a funny one, I think the real strength in it is how they’ll come together as a team.
“They are a very clever rugby team; they know how to work the ball through their hands and find space. When you give them information, they normally apply it really well. There’s no real standout things that we’ve seen so far that makes them very different to anyone else, but the strength of the whole group together is where we’ll be at our best.”
He is adamant that the back-to-back Grand Slams don’t cast a long shadow when it comes to the expectation ahead of this season. “Even last year, I answered this question the same way, they’re not connected because there’s nearly a whole new team.
“One of the first questions I asked the group when they got together was how many of them have won a Grand Slam? Hardly any people put their hand up [five in a room of 50 players]. So, they haven’t won anything as a team.
“It’s very much about the boring old thing about playing on the day that you’re in, trying to get through France. If we get through France, we move on to Italy and hopefully we’ll run out of games at the end of it. It’s the only way I know to keep the players focused and motivated on getting better; being a performance-based team rather than results.”
Covid interrupted the development of this group to a degree and there are some legacy effects but there is a zero-excuse culture. Coaches and players in the Under-20 management and the provinces come together to rectify those issues.
Murphy explained: “Looking at the players as they come up through, what we are seeing is some skill deficiencies in that time they have missed out on playing rugby. They are showing up through the games and the stats and off the back of that we are adapting our training programmes to make sure we are addressing those.
“The great thing about the 20s programme is that the stuff we’re trying to drive into the players is getting driven back in with the provinces through their provincial hubs. There is a collective agreement of what we need to do in order to make sure that Irish rugby is strong going forward.”
An important performance pathway for the 20s is playing club rugby. “One of the things that we said at the start of the year was that we wanted all our players playing AIL. It’s a very different game to what we play in the 20s but the ability to go out week in and week out and perform against older men in a physical encounter has been very important.
“All the players will comment on the physicality of the AIL and we want to play with speed as well. That’s probably the balance part of it. They are getting the physicality when they are in the AIL. We want to bring them up to speed and the mixture of both is where we’ll hopefully be before the Six Nations.”
There is one change to the coaching team from last year’s Six Nations campaign with Keatley replacing Sexton, now a senior coach with Connacht, as backs coach. “Ian Keatley has come into the group, loads of experience himself as a player representing Ireland, Munster, Connacht and Leinster.
“He’s been a really good addition, really good with the players, one-on-one conversations with the backs and has hit the ground running.”
Ireland Squad
Backs (14) – Oliver Coffey (Blackrock College), Tadhg Brophy (Naas), Will Wootton (Sale Sharks), Jake O’Riordan (UL Bohemian), Jack Murphy (Clontarf), Seán Naughton (Galway Corinthians), Hugo McLaughlin (Lansdowne), Ethan Graham (Ballynahinch), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians), Rory Ellerby (QUB), Wilhelm de Klerk (UCD), Finn Treacy (Galwegians), Stephen Kiely (Shannon), Ben O’Connor (UCC).
Forwards (17) – Alex Usanov (Clontarf), Ben Howard (Terenure College), Danny Sheahan (Cork Constitution), Henry Walker (QUB), Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley), Patreece Bell (Sale Sharks), Jacob Boyd (QUB), Andrew Sparrow (UCD), Joe Hopes (QUB), Billy Corrigan (Old Wesley), Evan O’Connell (UL Bohemian, capt), Alan Spicer (UCD), Bryn Ward (Ballynahinch), Seán Edogbo (UCC), Josh Stevens (QUB), Brian Gleeson (Garryowen), Luke Murphy (Shannon).
Under-20 fixtures
Saturday, February 3rd: France v Ireland, Stade Maurice David (8.10pm, Irish time).
Friday, February 9th: Ireland v Italy, Musgrave Park (7.15)
Friday, February 23rd: Ireland v Wales, Musgrave Park (7.15)
Friday, March 8th: England v Ireland, Recreation Ground (7.15)
Friday, March 15th: Ireland v Scotland, Musgrave Park (7.0).
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