Narrow Defeat For the Ireland Under 21s.

Despite taking an early lead and dominating the early exchanges, the Ireland Under 21 side were beaten, 20-19, this afternoon in Ebbw Vale by their Welsh counterparts.

Right-wing Richard Lane who had earlier been informed of his inclusion in the Munster squad for the Heineken Cup knock-out phase, opened the scoring with an early try as the Irish carried the fight impressively to the highly regarded Welsh side. However, they failed to turn possession into scores and four mised shots at goal were to prove costly in the end.

The home side rallied, and raced into a 20-5 lead but to their great credit, the Irish turned in a committed closing quarter and got to within a point of the lead thanks to tries from John Hearty and Keith Matthews.
David McAllister converted both and the Irish had opportunities to win but in the end the failure to convert those early opportunity proved crucial to the outcome.

Ireland Under 21.

>15. Tommy Bowe – Queens University
14. Richard Lane – UCC
13. Barry Murphy – UL Bohemians
12. Keith Matthews – UL Bohemians
11. John Hearty – Blackrock College
10. David McAllister – UCC
9. Fiach O’Loughlin – Shannon
8. Stephen Keogh – UCC capt
7. Niall Ronan – Lansdowne
6. Ciaran Potts – St. Mary’s College
5. Neil McComb – Dundee Highschool
4. David Gannon – UCD
3. Declan Fitzpatrick – Belfast Harlequins
2. Rory Best – Belfast Harlequins
1. John Lyne – Lansdowne

Replacements: Shane O’Connor – Cork Constitution for McComb
John Muldoon – Galwegians for Ronan (blood injury).