TOWERING Evan O’Connell (UL Bohemian) – who stands at 6’ 7” – will captain Ireland at the World Rugby Under-20 Championship, which takes place in Cape Town, South Africa from this weekend through to July 19.
In the Group stages, Ireland are scheduled to meet Italy (this Saturday, 3.30pm), Georgia (July 2), and Australia (July 9).
Also included are O’Connell’s clubmate Jake O’Riordan, Brian Gleeson (Garryowen), and Shannon pair Luke Murphy and Emmet Calvey.
Speaking ahead of the squad’s departure, Coach Willie Faloon said: “It is an exciting time for the squad as we prepare to depart for the World Rugby U20 Championship.”
“It has been a competitive couple of weeks as the squad have pushed each other in preparation for the tournament and we know we’ll need to grow and evolve as a team from the Six Nations for what will be a challenging couple of weeks against quality opposition in South Africa.”
Meanwhile, Munster has confirmed that both O’Riordan and Murphy have joined its Academy ahead of the 2024/25 season.
Scrum-half O’Riordan (19) came up through the underage ranks with Bruff. He has represented Munster and Ireland at age-grade level.
Back-row Murphy (19) was a stand-out performer in recent Munster Schools Senior and Junio Cup outings with Ardscoil Rís. He is a regular performer with underage provincial and national teams.
Also promoted to the Academy are back-row Seán Edogbo (UCC), second-row Michael Foy (Cork Constitution), centre Gene O’Leary Kareem (Highfield) and hooker Danny Sheahan (Cork Consitution).
Edwin Edogbo, Tony Butler, Ethan Coughlan, Mark Donnelly and Gleeson will move up from the Academy to the senior squad next season.
