Ireland ‘A’ Team Announced For Plate Final

The selected Ireland ‘A’ team shows five changes to the side that lost 34-12 to England Saxons in the final group game in Toronto last Saturday.

In the backs, Mark McCrea makes a return on the right wing, while Darren Cave and Frank Murphy both come in for their first starts of the tournament.

In the forwards, Denis Fogarty returns in the number 2 jersey and Connacht flanker Johnny O’Connor is reinstalled at openside flanker, with both players having come off the replacements bench in the Saxons game.

There is one tournament newcomer on the Irish bench with Ulster’s Paul Marshall providing back-up at scrum half. Marshall was not in the original tournament squad and was called up with Tomas O’Leary ruled out of the Argentinian game.

Saturday’s game is the third successive Churchill Cup Plate final for the Ireland ‘A’ team. They beat the Saxons 30-27 in the 2006 Plate decider in Edmonton and they retained the title twelve months ago at Twickenham thanks to a nail-biting 22-21 win over Scotland ‘A’.

The match in Chicago will be broadcast live on Sky Sports 2, along with the Cup final (England Saxons v Scotland ‘A’) and the Bowl final (USA v Canada).

We will also be running our regular MatchDay Live service here on IrishRugby.ie, so you can keep track of the scoring and major incidents.

IRELAND ‘A’ TEAM & REPLACEMENTS (v Argentina ‘A’ Barclays Churchill Cup Plate final, Saturday, June 21, Toyota Park, Chicago, kick-off 11.45am local time/5.45pm Irish time):

15 – Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster) 

14 – Mark McCrea (Malone/Ulster)

13 – Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 

12 – Keith Earls (Garryowen/Munster) 

11 – Brian Tuohy (Cornish Pirates) 

10 – Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) 

9 – Frank Murphy (Leicester Tigers)

1 – Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 

2 – Denis Fogarty (Cork Constitution/Munster) 

3 – Mike Ross (NEC Harlequins) 

4 – Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster) 

5 – *Bob Casey (London Irish) (capt)

6 – *Neil Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)

7 – *Johnny O’Connor (Corinthians/Connacht) 

8 – *Roger Wilson (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)

Replacements:

16 – Tom Court (Malone/Ulster) 

17 – Sean Cronin (Shannon/Munster) 

18 – *Trevor Hogan (Shannon/Leinster) 

19 – David Pollock (Dungannon/Ulster) 

20 – Paul Marshall (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 

21 – Ian Keatley (Clontarf/Leinster) 

22 – Fergus McFadden (UCD/Leinster)

* Capped at full international level

Tour Management:

Coach – Allen Clarke

Assistant Coach – Dave O’Mahony

Team Manager – John McKibbin

Ireland ‘A’ Tournament Results:

Wednesday, June 11: USA 9 Ireland ‘A’ 46, Richardson Stadium, Kingston

Saturday, June 14: Ireland ‘A’ 12 England Saxons 34, Fletcher’s Fields, Toronto