A mixture of youth, experience and possible World Cup bolters.
A 27-man Emerging Ireland squad has been selected to travel to Georgia to compete in the World Rugby Tbilisi Cup next month.
Rhys Ruddock, Stephen Archer, Noel Reid, James Cronin and Rob Herring are the five senior caps in a squad coached by Ulster forwards coach Allen Clarke and Leinster’s Academy Manager Girvan Dempsey. Emerging Ireland will face Emerging Italy, Uruguay and Georgia.
Clarke commented, ‘This competition gives us the opportunity to develop some of the emerging talent from the four provinces with the support of some experienced players in a very challenging tournament format. It’s a great opportunity to see how these players react and perform faced with the challenge of a short preparation.’
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said, “There are some exciting prospects in this squad… [it] is an ideal challenge for them, especially as both Georgia and Uruguay will be using this tournament to springboard their Rugby World Cup campaigns.’
Emerging Ireland Squad
- Stephen Archer (Cork Constitution/Munster)
- Finlay Bealham (Corinthians/Connacht)
- Denis Buckley (Corinthians/Connacht)
- Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster)
- John Cooney (Terenure/Connacht)
- James Cronin (Dolphin/Munster)
- Eoin Griffin (London Irish)
- JJ Hanrahan (UL Bohemians/Munster)
- Matt Healy (Lansdowne/Connacht)
- Dave Heffernan (Buccaneers/Connacht)
- Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
- Billy Holland (Cork Constitution/Munster)
- Cian Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster)
- Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster)
- Ben Marshall (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
- Eoghan Masterson (Corinthians/Connacht)
- Stuart McCloskey (Ballynahinch/Ulster)
- Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster)
- Eoin McKeon (Corinthians/Connacht)
- Peter Nelson (Malone/Ulster)
- Tiernan O’Halloran (Buccaneers/Connacht)
- Noel Reid (Clontarf/Leinster)
- Rhys Ruddock (St Mary’s College/Leinster)
- Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster)
- Lewis Stevenson (Malone/Ulster)
- Frank Taggart (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
- Andy Warwick (Ballymena/Ulster)
