{"id":429652,"date":"2026-02-17T02:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T02:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429652\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T02:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T02:32:10","slug":"south-africa-leaves-door-open-for-highly-rated-josh-neill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429652\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa leaves door open for highly rated Josh Neill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

mens<\/p>\n

united-rugby-championship<\/p>\n

Ireland players Donnacha McGuire, left, and Josh Neill celebrate after their side’s victory in the U20 Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at Virgin Media Park in Cork. (Photo By Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile via Getty Images) https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/south-africa-leaves-door-open-for-highly-rated-josh-neill\/ <\/p>\n

The Springboks haven\u2019t given up hope and have left the door open for flanker Josh Neill<\/a> to play Test rugby for the land of his birth, despite his Man of the Match display for Ireland<\/a> U20 last weekend.<\/p>\n

Neill joined the Leinster<\/a> academy at the start of the season after they held off Munster<\/a> and every South African United Rugby Championship<\/a> side to land the former schoolboy prodigy earlier this season.<\/p>\n

Neill, a former Rondebosch Boys\u2019 High School and Springbok under-18 back row, made an impressive debut for Ireland under-20s, scoring two tries in a 29-10 win in a warm-up game against Italy.<\/p>\n

He then followed it up with another dazzling display against the Azzurri in Cork and has got England<\/a> firmly in his sights for this weekend, as Ireland look to shock the highly rated Red Rose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in our team, and we believe in the players that we have. I think when we get it right, we are going to be a good team, and I think we can go all the way in this Six Nations<\/a> campaign,\u201d he told RTE.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

England U20 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ireland U20 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite this, the Springboks are leaving the door open for Neill, who last year played for Western Province<\/a> under-18s, to change his mind and switch his allegiances back to the green and gold.<\/p>\n

He will only be captured by Andy Farrell under World Rugby Regulation 8.2 if he plays for Ireland\u2019s senior team, Ireland A<\/a> or the Irish senior sevens team.<\/p>\n

It is only then that the South Africans will have to admit defeat and accept that he won\u2019t be able to play for the Springboks, and his performances could even see him fast-tracked into the senior side by Leinster.<\/p>\n

They could then take a leaf out of England\u2019s book, who promoted Northampton<\/a> Saints wonderkid Henry Pollock<\/a> from England under-20s into Steve Borthwick\u2019s senior squad, but that does seem unlikely at this stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"mens united-rugby-championship Ireland players Donnacha McGuire, left, and Josh Neill celebrate after their side’s victory in the U20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-429652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}