Corinthians centre Sean David Walsh (Sean David to distinguish him from his team-mate Barnhall secondrow Sean Walsh) crossed for a hat-trick of tries and while a physical handful demonstrated nice balance and footwork as well as lovely light touches from time to time to put others into space.<\/p>\n
Ireland outhalf Charlie O\u2019Shea excelled, especially in broken play where his stepping ability and pace was unplayable for his American opponents. Three tries was a fitting recompense for that creativity. Garryowen\u2019s Joe Finn had a superb game, so too Alex Lautsou in an excellent backrow where Charlie Keane and Ben Blaney divvied up the workload. Duinn Maguire provided a dynamic presence.<\/p>\n
Prop Blake McClean featured more prominently than his primary set-piece duties, while right wing Charlie Molony offered a conspicuously positive contribution until his 20-minute red card, an accumulation of two yellow cards.<\/p>\n
He was unfortunate, not in the first instance, where a failed intercept attempt, merited the sanction but on the second transgression he can feel aggrieved. English referee George Selwood, who otherwise had a fine game, and TMO Francisco Gonzalez came up with two different adjudications for similar infringements.<\/p>\n
It is incongruous that Molony received a second yellow card, upgraded to the 20-minute red card when American wing Finnian Love jumped into and over the top of him, the Irish player\u2019s eyes always on the ball, and in a separate aerial collision Daniel Ryan who was in the air, gets clattered by the USA\u2019s Jack Firebrace; the latter no chance of winning the contest.<\/p>\n
![\"Ireland's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4UN6IQKC4LGUVRZ3JAF32SVPSQ.jpg\")
Ireland’s Daniel Ryan on his way to scoring a try. Photograph: Levan Verdzeuli\/Inpho <\/p>\n
If one was a card, then the other was too. Those irregularities are a bugbear for the game. The Irish bench added a desired impetus as Daniel Ryan scored an eighth try in eight caps at this age-grade while Jack Deegan completed a clean sweep in the pool as he grabbed tries against England, Argentina and the USA.<\/p>\n
Replacement scrumhalf Luke Coffey was very tidy on his arrival from the bench, especially in his line-kicking. Ireland scored their first try on 72 seconds through scrumhalf Christopher Barrett, centre Walsh and Green prominent in the build-up.<\/p>\n
The first of O\u2019Shea\u2019s hat-trick was a classy individual effort. Barrett eased through a gap on the short-side from a scrum, and his halfback buddy dating back to school days at CBC Cork, cruised clear before stepping the fullback, Blake Millar.<\/p>\n
Walsh got the first of his three tries before he combined with O\u2019Shea, his outhalf looping around his six feet, four-inch frame before racing through a gap and taking a wide arc around the last defender. Three minutes later O\u2019Shea snapped up a loose ball to outpace the cover. Walsh\u2019s second try and another by centre partner Rob Carney saw Ireland lead 45-3 at the interval.<\/p>\n
The USA were bright in some of their back play living off scraps, Love and centre Leo Keesler-Venables prominent, Firebrace too after his introduction and had a couple of tries chalked off for infringements while Ireland got away with a couple of forward passes for tries without being called back.<\/p>\n
Seven tries for Ireland before the interval was a strike-rate that was unlikely to be maintained but they did tag on another four, including one for the hard-working loosehead prop Adam Cooper. The influx of replacements, two yellow cards and a red card saw the game lose a little of the cohesion and continuity, but the USA did cross for three; Love, Keesler-Venables and scrumhalf Joseph Sarkees.<\/p>\n
Ireland appears to have lost a couple of players to injury, Dylan McNeice and Tom Wood, although there has been no clarification yet. Browne\u2019s side will play two crossover matches with opponents to be determined based on the outcome of the final pool matches.<\/p>\n
Scoring sequence: 1 min: Barrett try, Green conversion, 7-0; 3: O\u2019Shea try, Green conversion, 14-0; 13: Caden penalty, 14-3; 16: Sean Walsh (Corinthians) try, 19-3; 27: O\u2019Shea try, Green conversion, 26-3; 30: O\u2019Shea try, Green conversion, 33-3; 33: Sean Walsh (Corinthians) try, Green conversion, 40-3; 36: Carney try, 45-3. Half-time: 45-3. 44: Love try, 45-8; 48: Cooper try, Green conversion, 52-8; 52: Sean Walsh (Corinthians) try, Green conversion, 59-8; 58: Sarkees try, Firebrace conversion, 59-15; 60: Ryan try, Green conversion, 66-15; 73: Keesler-Venables try, Firebrace conversion, 66-22; 75: Deegan try, Green conversion, 73-22. <\/p>\n
Ireland: Daniel Green (QUB); Charlie Molony (UCD), Rob Carney (Cashel), Sean Walsh (Corinthians), Johnny O\u2019Sullivan (Dublin University); Charlie O\u2019Shea (UCC), Christopher Barrett (UCC); Adam Cooper (Buccaneers), Duinn Maguire (UCD), Blake McClean (Instonians); Sean Walsh (MU Barnhall), Joe Finn (Garryowen); Charlie Keane (Corinthians), Ben Blaney Terenure College, capt), Alex Lautsou (Shannon). Replacements: Luke McLaughlin (Old Belvedere) for Maguire 47 mins; Jamie Conway (Shannon) for McClean 47 mins; Luke Coffey (Blackrock College) for Barrett 52 mins; Daniel Ryan (Corinthians) for O\u2019Shea 52 mins; Jack Deegan (Blackrock) for Carney 57 mins; Paddy Woods (QUB) for Finn 57 mins; Diarmaid O\u2019Connell (Corinthians) for Keane 69 mins; Max Doyle (UCD) for Cooper 72 mins. <\/p>\n
Yellow card: C Molony 43 mins.<\/p>\n
Red card: C Molony 63 mins.<\/p>\n
USA: Blake Millar; Sialeafuhia Ofa, William Darbishire (capt), Leo Keesler-Venables, Finnian Love; Declan Caden, Joseph Sarkees; Colin Donnelly, Aidan Stewart, Tyler Trower; Lyndon Bailey, Tanielu Talaepa; Liam Hill, Harris Cluff, Frank Finicle. Replacements: Jack Firebrace for Cadden (HIA) 17 mins; Salesi Kafovalu for Stewart 35 mins; Alfie Booth for Trower 35 mins; Sawyer Troupe for Donnelly 51 mins; Pierce Kelly for Talaepea 51 mins; Jayden Williams for Hill 51 mins; Yiannis Efthymiopoulos for Finicle 57 mins; Trower for Booth 62 mins; Dane Mitchell for Ofa 71 mins. <\/p>\n
Yellow card: J Williams 55 mins.<\/p>\n
Referee: George Selwood (England) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Junior Championship: Ireland Under-20 73 USA Under-20 22 Mission accomplished. Andrew Browne\u2019s new-look Ireland team delivered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,39220,43],"class_list":["post-537526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby-u20s","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537526","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=537526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}