Under 20's Championship

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

At one stage I believe he was captaining either Leinster or Ireland 18's at the age of 16 or so the story went back in 2009

I read elsewhere that he only turned 18 in November. After a bit of digging, it appears he did captain the Ireland u18s last March and plays both sides of the scrum. As I said previously, I've never seen him play before but I've read and heard good things about him.

On a side note, of the 10 Leinster representatives in the Ireland team, 4 came from the Youths setup- Sherlock, Boyle, Kearney and Furlong. That's good to see since it's further evidence that the youths scene is growing and also the stereotype of who plays for and supports Leinster is being broken down. Sherlock and Furlong are both u19. Munster reps Buckley and Hanrahan, Ulster reps Jackson and Henderson and Connachts Conneally are also u19.

 

[lucky number 7]

I read elsewhere that he only turned 18 in November. After a bit of digging, it appears he did captain the Ireland u18s last March and plays both sides of the scrum. As I said previously, I've never seen him play before but I've read and heard good things about him.

Ah he captained them a bit later than I thought so ..Will the match be televised tonight?

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

On RTE.ie. Same time as the Leinster and Ulster games.

 

[Peat]

Never seen him play but heard good things about him and two years on the Ireland u18s club team shows he must have some pedigree. I hope he works out because the props dropped from the squad, Carey and Bealham, have looked nothing short of useless. I think Furlong may be eligible for this level again next year. He's in the Leinster sub academy as far as I know.

Be fair, I think you could have put any Irish prop up against that France U20 scrum and they'd have struggled when you factor in the comparitive weights behind them... I thought they looked ok against Italy, although neither looked as good as Martin Moore.

 

[lucky number 7]

Cant find it :/

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Ireland u20s won 15-0 tonight. No idea who scored or who played well.

 

[Peat]

The scorecard says Ireland got a penalty try.

Scotland must be absolute sodding mince then

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Annett scored one and Ireland got a penalty try too. The report on irishtimes.com says the Irish pack dominated.

15-0 is a good win on the face of it. A lot of squad members have been exposed to this level and then you have the likes of Gilroy, Conway, Macken, Marshall and McKeon who've graduated to ML level coming back in for the World Cup. I'd be tempted to move Jackson up to the Ulster squad for the next few games and give McKinney, Quinn McDonagh or Marsh gametime at 10 in the remaining 6 Nations games. O'Halloran is good enough to step up with Connacht too.

 

[Peat]

We wouldn't use him though. He's a talented wee fecker so he is, but there are no ML dead rubbers for us if we want to finish in the top 4 so its iHumph all the way, with Pienaar/Mincer covering 10. Only if iHumph gets himself injured would he get picked.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

You're right. Ruan Pienaar is the emergency second string flyhalf. It's very useful that he and Paddy Wallace can cover 10 since it affords Brian McLaughlin the opportunity to put other positions on the bench.

My thinking is that Paddy Jackson is the best Irish flyhalf prospect I've seen in God knows how long. Ulster have some relatively easy fixtures coming up. Now's a great opportunity to give him 20-25 minutes off the bench replacing Humphreys and playing alongside Pienaar and his u20s colleague Luke Marshall. In my opinion getting upwards of an hour of rugby for Ulster over the next three weeks will aid his development more than playing for the Ireland u20s and will also benefit Ulster in the long run. Jackson could usurp Jonny Sexton for Ireland within the next 3 seasons.

 

[monkeypigeon]

You're right. Ruan Pienaar is the emergency second string flyhalf. It's very useful that he and Paddy Wallace can cover 10 since it affords Brian McLaughlin the opportunity to put other positions on the bench.

My thinking is that Paddy Jackson is the best Irish flyhalf prospect I've seen in God knows how long. Ulster have some relatively easy fixtures coming up. Now's a great opportunity to give him 20-25 minutes off the bench replacing Humphreys and playing alongside Pienaar and his u20s colleague Luke Marshall. In my opinion getting upwards of an hour of rugby for Ulster over the next three weeks will aid his development more than playing for the Ireland u20s and will also benefit Ulster in the long run. Jackson could usurp Ronan O'Gara for Ireland within the next 3 seasons.

I fixed that for you. And that is slightly jumping the gun. He looks good but I'll wait till I've a couple of full games against good opposition before naming him the second coming of Toby Flood (the Great One).

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

It wouldn't be an internet forum without somebody making outlandish predictions! I just think Jackson has the complete game. He appears to have so much time on the ball and makes the right decision more often than not. He could easily play 15-20 times for Ulster next season mainly as backup to Ian Humphreys but with a handful of starts thrown in. Come 2012/13 he and Luke Marshall will be pushing Humphreys and Wallace hard for regular starting spots. Given Ulster's current upward curve, it won't be long after that before he's capped.

 

[monkeypigeon]

It wouldn't be an internet forum without somebody making outlandish predictions! I just think Jackson has the complete game. He appears to have so much time on the ball and makes the right decision more often than not. He could easily play 15-20 times for Ulster next season mainly as backup to Ian Humphreys but with a handful of starts thrown in. Come 2012/13 he and Luke Marshall will be pushing Humphreys and Wallace hard for regular starting spots. Given Ulster's current upward curve, it won't be long after that before he's capped.

We need Marc Lievremont or Jake White coaching Ireland first if we're to have any hope of people getting chances.

 

[Peat]

It'd be great for the Ginger Messiah (no pressure there then) to get that game time, Magners is where he'll learn the most and he's definitley up to the standard. But, easy games or no, right now for Ulster this is about putting on as many bonus point thumpings as they can for that team slot - and building up a head of steam for Milton Keynes. Jackson won't be part of that, Marshall and Gilroy will be the two changes in the backs. I love chucking out the youngsters but right now Ulster have bigger fish to fry.

I'd lay money on him being involved against Leinster game after Northampton though. I'd be wrapping iHumph in cotton wool then.

Anyway, the U20 6N decider will be on today... but on sod all at a guess, no chance of watching it. Massive shame that. Roll on the JWC and tons of games already...

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Ireland Under-20 v Wales Under-20 (Friday 11th March,
Kick-off 19:10. Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli)

15 - Mike Sherlock (Clontarf - Leinster)
14 - Craig Gilroy (Dungannon - Ulster)
13 - Alex Kelly (UCD - Leinster)
12 - Luke Marshall (Ballymena - Ulster)
11 - Andrew Boyle (UCD - Leinster)
10 - Patrick Jackson (Dungannon - Ulster)
9 - Blane McIlroy (Ballymena - Ulster)
1 - James Tracy (UCD - Leinster)
2 - Niall Annett (Belfast Harlequins - Ulster)
3 - Martin Moore (Lansdowne - Leinster)
4 - Michael Kearney (Clontarf - Leinster)
5 - Daniel Qualter (Buccaneers - Connacht)
6 - Shane Buckley (Garryowen - Munster)
7 - Aaron Conneely (Corinthians - Connacht)
8 - Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne - Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - David Doyle (UCD - Leinster)
17 - Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf - Leinster)
18 - Iain Henderson (Queens - Ulster)
19 - Cathal O'Flaherty (Cork Con - Munster)
20 - Mark Dolan (Corinthians - Connacht)
21 - JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemians - Munster)
22 - Tiernan O'Halloran (Galwegians - Connacht)

 

[munstermuffin]

Think that is a fair reflection of how development is going at the moment. Munster have to simply try develop more serious prospects

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Wales u20 26 - 26 Ireland u20

Both teams can be pleased with yesterdays game.

I thought the Welsh backrow was top drawer. Hamilton (I think) snaffled a lot of ball and slowed down Ireland's possession all day. The sub scrum half sped things up considerably. Matthew Morgan made some mistakes but always tried to be positive and brought Wales back into the game through good positional kicking and ice cool goalkicking. The centres looked dangerous off first phase.

For Ireland, obviously not winning a game they dominated was disappointing. As I often say, results at this level mean nothing, what you want are individuals to put their hands up and be given the freedom to showcase their skills. As such, Ireland had a bunch of stand out performers. The props scrummaged fantastically and showed up in the loose too. Tracy in particular impressed me with his speed around the field. Qualter was a nuisance in defence. Murphy gave away a couple of penalties but was a dynamic ball carrier, willing tackler and showed some nice skills flicking the ball up from the back of scrums. Jackson and Marshall were quiet but both showed flashes of what they could do. Gilroy was awesome- he's a try scoring machine. Sherlock needs to work on his decision making (ie when to pass and improve his support lines) but he looked a very raw talent at fullback who can develop into a good player. The set pieces were on top all game- the coaching staff should be applauded for the improvement the team have shown in this area.

Back to Gilroy, maybe I'm overstating things but he should be capped ahead of the World Cup. He's in the right place at the right time every time. He doesn't just sit on the wing and wait for the ball but consistently runs tracking lines off the flyhalf and centres looking for the ball. His tackling is up to scratch and he seems to be decent under a high ball and at kicking too. He won't go to NZ in September/October but Ireland have four warm up games and he deserves to feature in one of them.

Also, I didn't realise how young this Ireland squad is until a week or two ago. Five starters and three subs are eligible for another year at this level- Qualter, Buckley, Conneally, Furlong, Henderson, Jackson, Sherlock and Hanrahan.

 

[profitius]

Also, I didn't realise how young this Ireland squad is until a week or two ago. Five starters and three subs are eligible for another year at this level- Qualter, Buckley, Conneally, Furlong, Henderson, Jackson, Sherlock and Hanrahan.

Where did you find the profiles? Irishrugby.ie have only some of them up and some of those have no info. Very Amateur.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Yeah the IRFU site is awful. I had far too much time on my hands and googled those of them who don't have profiles online. All of the above either played u19 interprovincial this season or u18 international rugby last year. That would make them eligible for u20 next season.

 

[187]

Mako Vunipola (Bristol Rugby)*

that's my cousin, never seen him play. He left our shores about 15yrs ago. Is he any good? Be honest haha.