Ireland open U20s World Cup campaign against Italy in Cape Town

Ireland open their U20 Rugby World Cup campaign against Italy in Cape Town this afternoon (3pm) hoping to go one better than last year when they finished runners-up to France.There has been a change of Head Coach, Willie Faloon taking the job following Richie Murphy moving to Ulster last April following the completion of the U20 Six Nations.Ireland, captained by Evan O'Connell, are in an initial group containing Italy, Georgia and Australia.

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“We’ve spoken a lot around the close turnarounds," says Fallon of the 12 team tournament schedule. "We’ve got five games, five-day turnarounds, and it’s pretty intense.“We are well aware of the challenge from last year and we’ve spoken about it a good bit. The players are excited about it but they know it’s going to be a tough challenge.”

The Roberto Santamaria-coached Italians are the fourth seeds in the pool, ranked below Georgia in this age-group, and their star out-half Martino Pucciariello is the son of former Munster Heineken Cup winning prop Freddie Pucciariello.“Compared to the Six Nations there are many more variables from a physical and tactical point of view having a match every five days," says coach Santamaria referencing the Six Nations campaign where they posted two wins, away in France and home to Scotland.Ireland came out the right side of a 23-22 scoreline when these sides met in Cork in the Six Nations with suggestions Ireland had moved on since that game.Says Faloon: “Just subtle changes, a few things just to evolve how we play, as we want to go a little bit deeper in and play a bit harder in.“Because I’m head coach now and the roles have changed, I can lead a little bit more now around that defence where we want to go a little bit harder.“We’ve tried to kick on a layer from what we did in the Six Nations. We’re working with a development group and there’s always going to be that effort to add layers to what we do.“We’re trying to do that with every part of the game, from my side. From the defensive point of view, we want to bring on that aspect.”Ireland: Ben O'Connor (UCC/Munster); Davy Colbert (Dublin Univ/Leinster), Finn Treacy (Galwegians/Connacht), Sam Berman (Terenure Coll/Leinster), Hugo McLaughlin (Lansdowne/Leinster); Jack Murphy (Clontarf/Leinster), Oliver Coffey (Blackrock Coll/Leinster), Jacob Boyd (QUB/Ulster), Danny Sheahan (Cork Con/Munster), Patreece Bell (Sale Sharks), Alan Spicer (UCD/Leinster), Evan O'Connell (UL Bohs/Munster)capt, Sean Edogbo (UCC/Munster), Max Flynn (Galway Corinthians/Connacht)*, Luke Murphy (Shannon/Munster)Subs; Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley/Leinster), Emmet Calvey (Shannon/Munster), Andrew Sparrow (UCD/Leinster), James McKillop (QUB/Ulster), Bryn Ward (Ballynahinch/Ulster), Jake O'Riordan (UL Bohs/Munster)*, Sean Naughton (Galway Corinthians/Connacht), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians/Connacht).Italy: Mirko Belloni; Marco Scalabrin, Federico Zanandrea, Nicola Bozzo, Lorenzo Elettri; Martino Pucciariello, Mattia Jimenez; Sergio Pelliccioli, Nicholas Gasperini, Davide Ascari, Mattia Midena, Giacomo Milano, Cesare Zucconi, Luca Bellucci, Jacopo Botturi (capt);Subs; Valerio Siciliano, Francesco Gentile, Federico Pisani, Tommaso Redondi, Nelson Casartelli, Lorenzo Casilio, Simone Brisighella, Patrick de Villiers.

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