{"id":556665,"date":"2026-07-18T23:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/556665\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T23:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:03:09","slug":"ireland-u20s-ring-the-changes-for-world-championship-playoff-v-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/556665\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland U20s Ring The Changes For World Championship Playoff v Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ireland U20s take on Italy on Saturday evening in the 9th-place playoff, their final game of the Junior World Championship.<\/p>\n

A tight opening day defeat to England<\/a> was followed by a more resounding loss to Argentina<\/a>, meaning this is effectively the third game straight of merely playing for pride for Ireland.<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

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Back-to-back victories over the USA<\/a> and Fiji<\/a> have, though, lifted the mood around the camp, and Ireland can finish the tournament on a high by securing 9th place on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

Head coach Andrew Browne has made a host of changes for the playoff in Kutaisi, Georgia, with captain Sami Bishti among those to miss out.<\/p>\n

Ireland U20s: Browne makes changes<\/p>\n

Andrew Browne has made an intriguing switch at fly-half, bringing Charlie O’Shea back into the starting XV, having started Daniel Green in the 9th-place semi-final against Fiji.<\/p>\n

In the back three, Daniel Green replaces Johnny O’Sullivan, while Charlie Molony<\/a> moves from full-back to the wing.<\/p>\n

Rob Carney replaces Jack Deegan at outside centre and partners James O’Leary.<\/p>\n

Captain Sami Bishti, out injured, has been replaced at tighthead by Blake McClean, while Josh Neill will skipper Ireland from the back-row.<\/p>\n

Ireland U20s team to play Italy<\/p>\n

15 Daniel Green (Queen’s Uni\/Ulster); 14 Charlie Molony (UCD\/Leinster), 13 Rob Carney (Cashel\/Munster), 12 James O’Leary (UCC\/Munster), 11 Daniel Ryan (Corinthians\/Connacht); 10 Charlie O’Shea (UCC\/Munster), 9 Christopher Barrett (UCC\/Munster); 1 Max Doyle (UCD\/Leinster), 2 Duinn Maguire (UCD\/Leinster), 3 Blake McClean (Instonians\/Ulster); 4 Joe Finn (Garryowen\/Munster), 5 Donnacha McGuire (UCD\/Leinster); 6 Josh Neill (captain, Old Wesley\/Leinster), 7 Alex Lautsou (Shannon\/Munster), 8 Diarmuid O’Connell (Corinthians\/Connacht)<\/p>\n

Ireland replacements:\u00a016 Rian Handley (Old Wesley\/Leinster), 17 Adam Cooper (Buccaneers\/Connacht), 18 Luke Murtagh (Galwegians\/Connacht), 19 Sean Walsh (MU Barnhall\/Leinster), 20 Charlie Keane (Corinthians\/Connacht), 21 Luke Coffey (Blackrock College\/Leinster), 22 Sean Walsh (Corinthians\/Connacht), 23 Jack Deegan (Blackrock\/Leinster)<\/p>\n

The Ireland U20s face Italy in the Junior World Championship 9th place playoff in Kutaisi, Georgia at 5:30pm Irish time. The game is live on RugbyPass TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ireland U20s take on Italy on Saturday evening in the 9th-place playoff, their final game of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,67592,43],"class_list":["post-556665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-u20s","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556665","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=556665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}