WATERFORD’S JACK O’DONOGHUE will captain the Ireland Under 20s this summer after Galwegians lock Sean O’Brien pulled out through injury.
O’Brien is one of three withdrawals from the 28-man squad and misses out due to “ongoing treatment” to an ankle injury, says and IRFU statement this morning, and is replaced by Oisin Heffernan.
The other two late call-ups for the tournament in New Zealand which starts next week are Harrison Brewer and a seventh Lansdowne representative in Ian Fitzpatrick.
Tenenure centre Brewer is back in the fold due to an ankle injury sustained by Peter Robb while Fitzpatrick is the beneficiary of the knee injury picked up by Ulster fullback David Busby in training.
TG4 will broadcast coverage of Ireland’s fixtures in Pool B as well as the semi-finals and finals.
Ireland face France on June 2, Wales on June 6 (both KO 6.35AM Irish time) and Fiji on June 10 (KO 2.35AM) with the semi-finals taking place on June 15 (from 6AM) with the final at 8.35AM on June 20.
Here’s the revised squad in full (*denotes uncapped U20 internationals).
Max Abbott (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Rory Burke (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Ross Byrne (UCD – Leinster)
Harrison Brewer (Terenure College – Leinster)
Denis Coulson (Lansdowne – Leinster)
William Dardis (UCD – Leinster)*
Diarmaid Dee (Young Munster – Munster)*
Dylan Donnellan (UCD – Leinster)*
Peter Dooley (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Ryan Foley (Cork Constitution – Munster)*
Ian Fitzpatrick (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Ciaran Gaffney (Galwegians – Connacht)*
Stephen Gardiner (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Dan Goggin (Young Munster – Munster)
Oisin Heffernan (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Cian Kelleher (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Josh Murphy (UCD – Leinster)
Nick McCarthy (UCD – Leinster)
Conor McKeon (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Darragh Moloney (Cork Constitution – Munster)*
Rory Moloney (Buccaneers – Connacht)
Ross Molony (UCD – Leinster)
Jack O’Donoghue (UL Bohemian – Munster) Capt
Garry Ringrose (UCD – Leinster)
Frank Taggart (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
Peadar Timmins (UCD – Leinster)
Craig Trenier (Terenure – Leinster)*
Alex Wootton (Garryowen – Munster).
