{"id":539549,"date":"2026-07-08T17:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/539549\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:10:09","slug":"ireland-fans-cant-get-over-cheat-code-connacht-youngster-after-dominating-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/539549\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland fans can&#8217;t get over &#8216;cheat code&#8217; Connacht youngster after dominating display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fans online can\u2019t get enough of Connacht academy centre Sean Walsh after he starred in Ireland\u2019s 73-22 win over the USA in the World Rugby Junior Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After defeats to <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2026\/06\/27\/the-lineout\/ireland-u20s-england-ryan-defeat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> and Argentina, Ireland knew they had to beat the US to get into the ninth-place play-off bracket, and they ran riot over the Americans. The Eagles had already suffered heavy defeats to the Argentines and English, and it was more of the same in Tbilisi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Andrew Browne\u2019s side ran in 11 tries en route to victory, with both Walsh and Charlie O\u2019Shea scoring three each, as they are now set to face off against Fiji in their ninth-place play-off semi-final on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/95201_2997676.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1790628\"  \/>Sean Walsh celebrates after a try. Pic: Levan Verdzeuli\/INPHO<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in the aftermath of that performance, the one player everyone can\u2019t seem to stop talking about is hat-trick hero Sean Walsh. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Galway centre was monstrous in Georgia, making crunching tackles and bulldozing carries in his first appearance at these World Championships<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He recorded 5 dominant tackles, including this one on an American back, which led to a turnover and Rob Carney running away to score and make it 45-3 at halftime for the Boys in Green.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ouch! Sean Walsh laying down a marker \ud83d\udca5<\/p>\n<p>The Moycullen man made his competitive debut for the Irish U20s and scored a hat-trick of tries \u2618\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddea<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/OneConnacht?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#OneConnacht<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9Sw2kS2K4S\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/9Sw2kS2K4S<\/a><\/p>\n<p>     \u2014 Connacht Rugby (@connachtrugby) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/connachtrugby\/status\/2074506014842347582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 7, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Well, that tackle &amp; try will make for a nice addition to Sean Walsh\u2019s highlight reel\u2019, one fan quipped on Reddit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Sean Walsh was like a cheat code, played great everywhere, really physical player\u2019, posted another.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One Leinster fan had an ambitious take on X of Walsh doing a Robbie Henshaw. \u2018I\u2019m on the Bandwagon already! Get him into a senior set-up. Leinster need a 12 or 13. Come on.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3504510.jpg\" alt=\"sean walsh ireland\" class=\"wp-image-1790627\"  \/>Sean Walsh on his way to score his side\u2019s sixth try. Pic: Tamuna Kulumbegashvili\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moycullen-native Walsh isn\u2019t just a stud on the rugby pitch, but has also represented Galway at minor level. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He featured for Galway Corinthians\u2019 AIL team last season, and certainly is a name to look out for next term, with Stuart Lancaster potentially finding Connacht\u2019s long-term replacement for Bundee Aki.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans online can\u2019t get enough of Connacht academy centre Sean Walsh after he starred in Ireland\u2019s 73-22 win&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-539549","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\/539549","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=539549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}