{"id":518187,"date":"2026-06-25T18:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/518187\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T18:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:54:09","slug":"big-call-made-at-10-as-ireland-u20s-open-their-world-championship-against-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/518187\/","title":{"rendered":"Big call made at 10 as Ireland U20s open their World Championship against England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sami Bhisti will captain Ireland U20s once again as they get their U20 World Championship campaign underway against England.<\/p>\n<p>After leading the side out during the Six Nations, the tighthead starts once again alongside his UCD teammate Max Doyle and Old Wesley\u2019s Rian Handley in the front row.<\/p>\n<p>Behind them is another UCD pairing as Donnacha McGuire and Dylan McNeice lock down the second row. Meanwhile, in the back row, Ben Blaney starts at openside and Diarmaid O\u2019Connell\u00a0at No 8, while South African-born Leinster academy man <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2026\/02\/07\/the-lineout\/josh-neill-ireland-u20s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Neill<\/a> gets the chance to shine once again against England, starting at 6.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3356169.jpg\" alt=\"Ireland U20s\" class=\"wp-image-1785198\"  \/>Josh Neill. Pic: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a huge call at 10 as Munster\u2019s Charlie O\u2019Shea gets the nod ahead of Tom Wood, who\u2019s very highly thought of at Munster after making his first two senior appearances this past season. O\u2019Shea is joined by his UCC teammate Christopher Barrett, who\u2019s just penned an academy deal with the Red Army.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s another Munster pairing in the centres as James O\u2019Leary and Rob Carney start, while Connacht\u2019s Daniel Ryan and Leinster\u2019s Charlie Molony and Noah Byrne make up the back three.<\/p>\n<p>Head Coach Andrew Browne has gone with a 5\/3 split on the bench. In the front row are Duinn Maguire, Adam Cooper, and Jamie Conway, with Paddy Woods and Alex Lautsou bolstering the pack. Then, along with Wood, James O\u2019Dwyer, and Jack Deegan make it into the 23.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3351686.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1785197\"  \/>Charlie O\u2019Shea of Ireland U20s. Pic: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p>England is captained by their No 8 Connor Treacey of Bath and features Sonny Tonga\u2019uiha, the son of famous Northampton Saints prop Soane Tonga\u2019uiha, on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland U20s will look to have a better World Championship campaign this time around in Georgia, after finishing 11th last year following defeats to Italy, Scotland, and a heavy 69-22 defeat to New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland won an epic battle in the Six Nations back in February, shocking England at Bath. Can Andrew Browne\u2019s side do it again in Tbilisi? You can catch the game live on Saturday, June 27, with kick-off at 12:30 pm Irish Time, and it will be shown on Premier Sports and RugbyPass TV.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Ireland U20s team for Saturday&#8217;s World Rugby Junior World Championship opener against England. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sIEDoutdCX\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/sIEDoutdCX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IrishRugby\/status\/2070108038120497160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 25, 2026<\/a><br \/>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sami Bhisti will captain Ireland U20s once again as they get their U20 World Championship campaign underway against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-518187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}