Ireland Under-20s Make One Change For France

Ireland U20

6th February 2008

The Ireland Under-20 team (sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers) to play France in their second match of the RBS Under-20 Six Nations championship shows one change to the side that beat Italy in Athlone last Friday.

Full-back Niall Morris has been ruled out of the game due to an ankle injury and his place has been taken by Sean Scanlon, who moves into the starting team from the replacements. Scanlon's elevation sees Conor Cleary called up for bench duty.

Ireland coach Eric Elwood said: "Last week's match may not have been the prettiest game, but the guys stuck it out and showed great character to get past the Italians in the end.

"We felt that the selection should reflect that level of performance and have gone with an unchanged side, with the exception of Niall's injury. Hopefully we will have a drier track to go on this week to allow us move the ball a bit more and not get caught up in playing from ruck to ruck.

"France offer a similar challenge this week in the physical stakes as Italy did, but will no doubt have that bit more pace in attack, so again it is a case of meeting them head on and getting a good start to the game.

"I thought our pack played particularly well last week, so another performance of that calibre is required if we are to compete with the French side."

IRELAND UNDER-20 TEAM AND REPLACEMENTS (v France U-20s, RBS U-20 Six Nations, Stadium Jacques Fouroux, Auch, Friday, February 8, kick-off 6.30pm local time):

Player Club/Province

15 - Sean Scanlon UCC/Munster

14 - David Kearney Lansdowne/Leinster

13 - Eoin O'Malley Old Belvedere/Leinster

12 - Eamonn Sheridan Lansdowne/Leinster

11 - Chris Cochrane Queens University/Ulster

10 - Martin Dufficy Dublin University/Leinster

9 - David Moore Blackrock College RFC/Leinster

1 - Paul Karayiannis Queen's University/Ulster

2 - Stephen Douglas Ballymena/Ulster

3 - Ben Barclay UCD/Leinster

4 - David Nolan Galwegians/Connacht