Show Your Support For Irish U20s

As the Irish U20s prepare for their first ever Junior World Championship semi-final, we want you to #ShowYourSupport for captain Jack O’Donoghue and the team, as the Munsterman leads them into previously uncharted waters.

A total of eight Munster representatives have lined out for Ireland in this year’s campaign, with seven of those players currently members of the Greencore Munster Rugby Academy.

Prop Rory Burke, hooker Max Abbot, centre Dan Goggin and number 8 Jack O’Donoghue (capt) have started in all three Pool B fixtures, with Alex Wootton starting on the wing against Wales and Fiji.

Scrum half Ryan Foley made appearances from the bench in Ireland’s pool openers, and did enough to impress Head Coach Mike Ruddock, securing the number 9 jersey against Fiji.

After making his Irish U20 debut alongside Foley against France, second row Darragh Moloney was another to make his first start on the tour, doing so against Wales, while Diarmaid Dee completed the trio of Munstermen winning their first Irish U20 cap, the back row forward providing impact from the bench against the French and Welsh.

Despite losing narrowly to France in their opening game of the tournament, Ireland showed composure and determination to strike back just days later, defeating Wales 21-35. To put the Welsh result into context, one would have to go back to February 2004 to find a similar result for Ireland against Wales at Under-20/Under-21 level. Back then, tries from future senior stars Jamie Heaslip and Tommy Bowe helped Ireland U-21s record a 30-19 win over the Welsh at the Sportsground.

Ireland’s fine form continued into Monday’s clash with the Fijians, with O’Donoghue and co. keeping the islanders scoreless in a 38-0 bonus point victory.

Now with a semi-final spot secured for the first time ever, Munster Rugby are asking you to #ShowYourSupport for Munster’s representatives and the entire team as they prepare to face England U20’s at the QBE Stadium, Auckland on Sunday morning at 06:05 (Irish time) – coverage on TG4 and Sky Sports 1.

Munster Squad Captain Peter O’Mahony was the first to pledge his support on twitter this morning.
@peterom6 – Best of luck to all the lads on the @IrishRugby U20s squad on their upcoming semi-final against England!

While Munster Rugby CEO Garrett Fitzgerald is immensely proud of what they’ve achieved so far:

“Playing in the Junior World Championship is a great honour and achievement for any young player. It’s a tough attritional competition, but those who play in it will be all the better for the experience. To have reached a new milestone for Ireland in the competition is indeed a great achievement, and we are especially proud of our Munster contingent within the setup. I would like to wish Jack (O’Donoghue) and all the team the very best for the upcoming semi-final and would urge fans from all over Munster to lend their support to the team.”

#ShowYourSupport for Jack, Rory, Max, Dan, Alex, Ryan, Darragh, Diarmaid and all the team. E-mail info@munsterrugby.ie with your messages of support and Munster Rugby will pass them on to team in New Zealand.

Alternatively tweet @IrishRugby your message of support using the hashtags #ShowYourSupport and #IrlU20s