Ireland U20s Well Beaten By Leinster Development Side
The Ireland Under 20s gained valuable game time against a very experienced Leinster Development XV despite losing the game 39 – 7 at Donnybrook.
The experience of the Leinster XV belied their Developmental name and they applied that experience early in the game to race in to a commanding lead.
Michael Noone scored a brace of first half tries as Leinster cruised into a 25-0 half-time lead, with Fergus McFadden kicking five points – and adding a 14th minute try after superb inter-play from Royce Burke-Flynn and the lively Paul O’Donohoe – while prop Ruaidhri Murphy also got amongst the try scorers.
The Under 20s battled back in the second half, but could not finish off anumber of chances they created. Some astute finishing by Niall Morris (44) and Shane Monahan (82), converted by James Power and McFadden respectively, meant that they only had a solitary Andrew Burke (65) breakaway try in which to content themselves.
Burke added the points, but it was the Leinster Development team who earned the honours in an entertaining encounter.
LEINSTER SCORERS: M. Noone (2 tries), F. McFadden (1 try, 1 penalty, 2 conversions), R. Murphy / N. Morris / S. Monahan (1 try each), J. Power (1 conversion)
IRELAND SCORERS: A. Burke (1 try, 1 conversion)
LEINSTER DEVELOPMENT XV:
15: Felix Jones
14: Shane Monahan (Cian Aherne, 51)
13: Fergus McFadden (Eoin O’Malley, half-time)
12: Kyle Tonetti (Fergus McFadden, 64)
11: Niall Morris (Shane Monahan, 64)
10: James Power (Paul O’Donohoe, 64)
9: Paul O’Donohoe (David Moore, half-time)
1: Ruaidhri Murphy
2: Jason Harris-Wright (Richie Sweeney, half-time)
3: Royce-Burke Flynn
4: Conor McInerney
5: Shane Grannell (Jason Harris-Wright, 69) (Jamie Hagan, 74)
6: Michael Noone
7: Paul Ryan
8: Kevin McLaughlin CAPTAIN (John Dever, half-time)
IRELAND UNDER-20:
15: John O’Brien (Ian Madigan, 70)
14: Sean Morris (Gary Foley, 51)
13: Shane Gahan (Rory Pratt, 64)
12: Ian Madigan (Andrew Burke, 47)
11: Michael Keating
10: Ian McKinley
9: Mathew Healy (Chris Nolan, 64)
1: Jack McGrath (Oliver Daly, 74)
2: Thomas Sexton (David McGregor, 61)
3: Conor Higgins
4: James Sanford
5: Mark Flanagan
6: Ciaran Ruddock (Joe Moran, 65)
7: Eoin Cremen (Dominic Ryan, 70)
8: Peter O’Mahony (Jack O’Connell, 45)
REFEREE: David Keane (IRFU)