IRELAND U20s COACH Mike Ruddock has made three changes to the starting line-up that beat Fiji 38-0 to qualify for the Junior World Championships semi-final.
Ruddock has brought in Nick McCarthy at scrum-half with Frank Taggart [openside] and Peadar Timmins [blindside] coming into the back row for Sunday’s clash with England.
Ruddock commented, “England, the current World Champions are our next opponents and it doesn’t get any bigger than that. They will be confident after beating us in the Six Nations, but we have improved since then. Nothing less than our ‘A game’ will do.”
The game will be shown live on TG4 and Sky Sports, with kick-off at 6:05am on Sunday.
IRELAND U20: Cian Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster); Ciaran Gaffney (Galwegians/Connacht), Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster), Dan Goggin (Young Munster/Munster), Alex Wootton (Garryowen/Munster); Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster), Nick McCarthy (UCD/Leinster); Peter Dooley (Lansdowne/Leinster), Max Abbott (Cork Constitution/Munster), Rory Burke (Cork Constitution/Munster), Stephen Gardiner (Lansdowne/Leinster), Ross Molony (UCD/Leinster), Peadar Timmins (UCD/Leinster), Frank Taggart (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster), Jack O’Donoghue (UL Bohemians/Munster) (capt).
Replacements: Dylan Donnellan (UCD/Leinster), Denis Coulson (Lansdowne/Leinster), Oisin Heffernan (Lansdowne/Leinster), Darragh Moloney (Cork Constitution/Munster), Rory Moloney (Buccaneers/Connacht), Ryan Foley (Lansdowne/Leinster), Conor McKeon (Lansdowne/Leinster), Harrison Brewer (Terenure College/Leinster).