Former Ulster coach Neil Doak has been appointed the new head coach of the Ireland U20s - who are sponsored by PwC Ireland - for the upcoming 2025 U20s Six Nations.
The former scrum-half was part of the coaching ticket under Willie Faloon for this year’s World Cup in South Africa and now steps up to the top job.
Doak will be assisted by former Connacht and Munster out-half Ian Keatley, ex-Connacht second-row Andrew Browne and Blackrock College scrum expert Seamus Toomey.
Ireland open its campaign against England in Virgin Media Park on 30 January, with Doak excited to get started.
“It is a huge honour to take on the role of Ireland Men’s U20s head coach, and a challenge I am massively excited about,” he said.
"We have had a number of camps in the High-Performance Centre, and the application, hard work and commitment of the players have been really impressive.
“We have a lot of work to get through in preparation for the U20 Six Nations, but the group are focused on building positively day-by-day and the upcoming matches against Italy and the Leinster Development XV over the Christmas and New Year period present us with an invaluable opportunity to build that cohesion and momentum.
“We look forward to the challenges ahead, starting off with the visit of England to Virgin Media Park, where the Ireland U20s have received incredible support from the people of Cork in recent years, and we are determined to continue our excellent home record there and produce a performance we can be proud of.”
When Doak retired from playing, he became an attack coach and also served as interim head coach while Les Kiss was still with Ireland. He worked for Worcester Warriors between 2018 and 2020.
He was part of Kiss’s coaching ticket for Ireland’s 2013 United States and Canada summer tour. He also worked internationally with Emerging Ireland in 2014 and Georgia in 2020 alongside IRFU performance director David Humphreys. In recent years, he’s been working in Ulster’s academy.
Ireland have had huge success in this competition in recent years and we look forward to seeing how they'll compete under Doak.
