logo
Ireland make four changes for World U20 Rugby Championship clash against New Zealand

Ireland make four changes for World U20 Rugby Championship clash against New Zealand

Irish Examiner08-07-2025
Ireland head coach Neil Doak has made four changes to the side who lost to Italy for their clash with New Zealand in the World U20 Rugby Championship on Wednesday.
Conor Kennelly will start in second row while Oisin Minogue comes in to the back row. Meanwhile, Jonny Scott comes into the centre with Daniel Green starting at full back.
The game takes place at 5pm (Irish time) in Calvisano, with the boys in green looking to reach the semi-finals of the competition.
They'll be able to do so by winning with a bonus point or winning and restricting the Junior All Blacks to one bonus point.
Elsewhere, Charlie Molony moves to the wing alongside Derry Moloney while Ciarán Mangan makes up a midfield pairing with Jonny Scott. Will Wootton and Tom Wood will continue in the half backs.
In the pack, Alex Usanov, Henry Walker and Alex Mullan are in the front row, Billy Corrigan joins Kennelly in the engine room, Captain Éanna McCarthy shifts to six alongside Minogue with Luke Murphy again at eight.
Luke McLaughlin, Billy Bohan, Tom McAllister, David Walsh and Bobby Power are the forwards available to Doak and his Coaching Team on the bench, with backs Clark Logan, Sam Wisniewski and Gene O'Leary Kareem completing the 23.
The game will be streamed for free on RugbyPass TV.
IRELAND: 15. D Green (Queens University Belfast/Ulster), 14. C Molony (UCD/Leinster), 13. C Mangan (Blackrock College/Leinster), 12. J Scott (Banbridge/Ulster), 11. D Moloney (Blackrock College/Leinster), 10. T Wood (Garryowen/Munster), 9. W Wootton (Sale Sharks/IQ Rugby); 1. A Usanov (Clontarf/Leinster), 2. H Walker (Queen's University Belfast/Ulster), 3. A Mullan (Blackrock College/Leinster), 4. C Kennelly (Highfield/Munster), 5. B Corrigan (Old Wesley/Leinster), 6. E McCarthy (Galwegians/Connacht, captain), 7. O Minogue (Shannon/Munster), 8. L Murphy (Young Munster/Munster).
Replacements: 16. L McLaughlin (Old Belvedere/Leinster), 17. B Bohan (Galway Corinthians/Connacht), 18. T McAllister (Ballynahinch/Ulster), 19. D Walsh (Terenure/Leinster), 20. B Power (Galwegians/Connacht), 21. C Logan (Queen's University Belfast/Ulster), 22. S Wisniewski (Old Belvedere/Leinster), 23. G O'Leary Kareem (UCC/Munster).
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

When Shamrock Rovers moved lock stock to Boston
When Shamrock Rovers moved lock stock to Boston

Irish Examiner

time4 minutes ago

  • Irish Examiner

When Shamrock Rovers moved lock stock to Boston

I think it is fair to say that football has finally taken off in the United States. With a World Cup on the horizon and steadily increasing attendances, the sport that always eluded the adoration of the US sporting community has begun to embed itself in the culture of young sports fans across the Atlantic. A lot of effort and some strange ideas have gone into the countless attempts by different individuals to get the world's most popular sport into the heart of the US public. There has always been a very American approach to the philosophy around growing the sport in the US. Get the big stars in and surround them with pageantry and hype and the celeb-crazed American public will lap it up. In 2025 it is Lionel Messi, in 2007 it was David Beckham. Some people of a certain vintage will remember in the 70s when it was Pele. However, in the 1960s it was Shamrock Rovers. Well, not quite, but stay with me. Following the fanfare around England's 1966 World Cup triumph, there was a growing interest in the US around building a professional football league in a country where the sport barely registered with the general public. Two rival football associations emerged - The National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) and the United Soccer Association(USA). The United Soccer Association, otherwise known as The USA (confusing, I know) took an audacious shortcut to build up their league and their credibility. Instead of spending years registering teams, building squads and recruiting players they decided to import entire clubs from Europe and South America and gave them new identities in order to kickstart their new league. Some recognisable names set sail to the United States for the inaugural USA League in 1967 including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aberdeen, Cagliari and Shamrock Rovers. Teams were renamed and placed in a city relevant to them which led to Shamrock Rovers being stationed in Boston due to Boston's large Irish community. They were renamed 'Boston Rovers'. Boston Rovers pin badge. 'Going to the States in the sixties was fantastic,' according to Mick Leech, the Shamrock Rovers legend who was just 20 when he boarded that transatlantic flight. 'Dublin and Ireland at the time was a dreary, gloomy place. The whole trip was Disneyworld.' Rovers played their home games in the Manning Bowl in Lynn, a suburb 10 miles out of downtown Boston. It was a baseball stadium that was not necessarily decked out for soccer due to its square playing surface. Around 7,000 spectators went to see Rovers nab a 1-1 draw in their opening game on May 28 against the Detroit Cougars, better known to you and I as Glentoran FC from Belfast. The following week saw a 3-1 victory over the Houston Stars but things quickly went downhill after that and positive results on the pitch were few and far between. Rovers suffered a heavy 5–0 defeat to the Chicago Mustangs and a 4-1 loss to Dallas Tornados. The glamour of a trip abroad to America would not have been complete without a few celebrity encounters. Leech talks about an encounter with a young musician in an elevator in Toronto who turned out to be a 17-year-old Stevie Wonder. The squad also met with Maureen O'Hara, the Irish film icon from Dublin who was a diehard Rovers fan her entire life. Boston Rovers finished dead last in the league with two wins, three draws and seven losses. At the same time the whole project was failing quite spectacularly. 'They were interested in promoting soccer, but it was a business situation,' Leech says. 'The crowds were poor, there was no money to be made.' The players began to notice the quality of their food and accommodation diminishing as well as their spending money being reduced. The league received modest coverage in the American press but was basically not reported on at all back home in Ireland. The plug was pulled and the project was over only a couple of months after it had begun. Of the 12 teams who competed in the league, only the Dallas Tornados (Dundee United) would exist to see the beginning of the next decade. In 1968, the USA and NPSL merged into the North American Soccer League which would later use the same guiding principals to draw in global stars such as Pele, Cryuff and Beckenbauer. The Rovers squad returned home to Dublin and the Boston Rovers renamed themselves the Boston Beacons before folding one year later. In hindsight, it was always unlikely that a country with no interest in football was going to have its passion for the sport ignited and set ablaze by the likes of Shamrock Rovers and Stoke City, but the efforts of the USA league was the first attempts of a tactic that would remain as a means to increasing the sports popularity for decades to come and one which has ultimately worked. In other words, Shamrock Rovers walked so that Inter Miami could run. Though there were few great on-field moments or iconic games to talk about, it was an opportunity for young Dublin footballers such as Mick Leech to travel to America and see the world at a time when this was unaffordable to most. It also gave somewhat of an international reputation to clubs like Shamrock Rovers and, who knows, maybe there's a few fifth generation Irish Americans who retained their interest in the hoops long after Boston Rovers were gone.

Mason Melia believes he has 'grown into more of a man' and is ready for 'bigger challenge'
Mason Melia believes he has 'grown into more of a man' and is ready for 'bigger challenge'

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Mason Melia believes he has 'grown into more of a man' and is ready for 'bigger challenge'

'What shiner?' Such is the physical attention million-euro kid Mason Melia has been exposed to that he doesn't notice the marks inflicted. His St Patrick's Athletic manager Stephen Kenny recently contended opposition defenders were taking turns to try rough up his 17-year-old spearhead. Melia has the endurance, in body and mind, to withstand the man-marking he's faced, full sure it will equip him for the rigours the rest of his career demands. That roadmap has him landing at Tottenham Hotspur in January, billed as the most expensive export in the League of Ireland record books. The Saints are guaranteed an upfront fee of €1.9m, incremental bonuses including Ireland caps potentially doubling it, plus a 20% slice of profit on any future sale from Spurs. He could boost their coffers in the meantime too by steering them into the playoffs of the Conference League. A haul in prize-money surpassing the €1m waterline was yielded by prevailing against Lithuanian and Estonian opposition but Beşiktaş are on a different level. This time last year, Melia's fanbase extended to include Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson. He was present at Tallaght to watch him shine in the playoff against fellow Turks Istanbul Başakşehir – a run-out Kenny circles as being transformational for the perception of the prodigy. Melia takes it all in his stride, adamant the sole focus from his formative years around the fields of Newtownmountkennedy in Co Wicklow was a lifetime in football. Mason Melia in the Tallaght Stadium dressing room. Picture: Ryan Byrne/Inpho That he's been touted to follow Robbie Keane's path at Spurs is easily brushed off. Irish fans would be satisfied even if he develops into another Troy Parrott. 'I've grown into more of a man,' said the forward who officially reaches adulthood in September. 'I'm still only 17 but I've played over 80 games in senior football now. And I have big European nights like this to look forward to. 'That's benefitted me. I think I've always had my football head but I've grown into myself. I'm feeling more physical and ready for a bigger challenge.' Resisting the urge to retaliate amid the hostility is one of the many traits Spurs have admired. 'I've always been disciplined,' he affirms. 'I've known what I want since I was young. I finished my Junior Cert at school, sat down with my Ma and said 'this is what I want to do.' 'This is men's football really. Opponents don't go: 'Oh, he signed for them I am going to smash him.' I think everyone's the same. It's just the way the game is.' It won't be long before he steps into the Spurs slipstream that Keane, Parrott and his idol Harry Kane inhabited. The mothership are monitoring their asset from afar in the meantime, broadening his nutrition from the smoothies guzzled on daily commutes to training with his mother. 'Yeah, I think Tottenham have a plan for me,' he said about the future beyond the Saints and LOI. 'We'll take it step by step here, then see how I'm feeling in January and go from there.'

Shelbourne in pole position after shocking Rijeka in Croatia
Shelbourne in pole position after shocking Rijeka in Croatia

Irish Examiner

time4 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Shelbourne in pole position after shocking Rijeka in Croatia

EUROPA LEAGUE THIRD ROUND, FIRST LEG RIJEKA 1 (Niko Janković pen 56) SHELBOURNE 2 (Sam Bone 58, John Martin 70) Away wins in the Europa League are a rarity for Irish teams but this comeback victory puts Shelbourne on the brink of the lucrative league phase worth €3.8m. It's only the midway point of the tie against a classy Rijeka side but instead of having to beat either Linfield or Vikingur Gøta in a playoff for a berth in the Conference League, avoiding defeat at home next Tuesday before a sold-out Tolka Park would guarantee that spot. Shels boss Joey O'Brien highlighted the league's poor record on foreign soil but a dramatic turnaround trumped that to gild the club's return to Europe following an 18-month drought. Shamrock Rovers were the last team to win a Europa League fixture away from home and that two-leg victory over the Macedonian side secured their passage to the next stage of the Conference League. It changed from the group to league phase last year and once Shels hold the visitors in the return, they'll have six more games in the Autumn to relish. Things looked ominous for the League of Ireland champions when the Croatians struck first in a tight contest by Niko Janković converting a penalty but all that breakthrough in the 56th minute did was instigate a swift revival for the Reds. Defender Sam Bone equalised within two minutes by nodding in a rehearsed corner and another header, this time a bullet version by Waterford native John Martin, made it 2-1 with 20 minutes left. Bone was again in the thick of it in stoppage time but at this other end when a struck his arm. Spanish referee Ricardo de Burgos consulted with VAR but blew for full-time instead of for a penalty, much to the relief of the Shels contingent. More to follow….

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store