The World Rugby U20 Championship is set to get underway this Saturday in South Africa, with Ireland starting their tournament against Italy. Ireland will be hoping to go one step further than last years' team who lost out to the French in the final. Here's everything you need to know about Ireland U20s v Italy at the World Rugby U20s Championship.
It will be Willie Faloon's first tournament in charge of the Ireland U20's following the departure of Richie Murphy to Ulster, and he has named a strong Irish squad for the trip to South Africa.
Munster's Brian Gleeson and Sean Edogbo have been named amongst the 30 man squad captained by Evan O'Connell as they also face Georgia and Australia in hopes of topping Pool B and advancing to the semi-finals.
📸Ireland U20 Photo Call
Check out the gallery from yesterday's Ireland U20 photo call at the High Performance Centre.#futureisgreen @PwCIreland— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) June 21, 2024
READ HERE: Sean Edogbo: From Cobh Pirates Phenom To Ireland U20s Backrow
In their meeting in the U20 Six Nations at Virgin Media Park in February, a late Sean Edogbo try gave Ireland a tight 23-22 win.
How to watch Ireland U20s v Italy in the World Rugby U20 Championship.
Ireland U20s are set to face Italy in the World Rugby U20 Championship this Saturday June 29th in Cape Town Stadium in South Africa, with kick-off scheduled for 3:30pm
The match will be streamed live on RugbyPass.tv at 3:30pm, with the streaming service holding the rights for all the matches in the tournament. The service, run by World Rugby, is completely free with users only needing to sign up to the service to watch.
Ireland U20s v Italy Team News
Willie Faloon has named six Leinster players, five Munster players, two Connacht players, Jacob Boyd of Ulster and Patreece Bell from Sale Sharks in the starting XV.
Ben O'Connor of Munster is joined by Davy Colbert and Hugo McLaughlain of Leinster in the backs while Leinster's Sam Berman is joined by Finn Treacy of Connacht in the centre. Leinster duo Oliver Coffey and Jack Murphy will play scrum and fly-half.
Boyd and Bell are joined in the front row by Munster's Danny Sheahan while captain Evan O'Connell plays alongside Leinster's Alan Spicer in the second row. The back row consists of Munster duo Sean Edogbo and Luke Murphy alongside Max Flynn of Connacht.
The Ireland Men's U20s Match Day Squad for Saturday's World Rugby U20 Championship opener against Italy in Cape Town! 🟢#FutureIsGreen
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) June 27, 2024
Rule Trials for the World Rugby U20 Championship
The Ireland U20's will need to adapt to changes to the rulebook in the matches in South Africa as World Rugby are set to trial run six new rules in order to help make the sport safer for players and faster for fan engagement. A review of the closed trial will be presented to the World Rugby executive board in November.
Here are the list of the six rule trials set to take place at the World Rugby U20 Championship's and a small explanation to what they mean.
- Revised Sanctioning Procedures: Harsher red card sanctioning will come in place for off-field incidents, while red carded players will be replaceable after 20 minutes.
- Shot and Set-Piece Clock Changes: Conversions will now be limited to be taken within 60 seconds like penalty kicks at goal rather than the previous 90 seconds. A 30 second clock will also be introduced for lineouts and scrums.
- Scrum-Half set-piece protection: The number 9 will no longer be able to be played while the ball is near a tackle, ruck or maul, and the offside line at the scrum for the non-putting in scrum-half being situated at the middle of the tunnel.
- Mark Changes: Teams will now be able to take marks inside the 22 from kick-offs.
- Maul Changes: Teams must play the ball after the maul has been stopped only once.
- Lineout Changes: Teams will now be play on if a lineout is not delivered straight but only if the lineout was uncontested.
Let's hope that Faloon and his squad of Irish Rugby's stars of tomorrow can use these trials to their advantage in South Africa and deliver the U20 championship title back to Ireland.
