Fitzgerald And Coombes Called Up To Ireland U-20 Squad

Out-half Angus Curtis, who made his U-20 debut as a replacement against Scotland, suffered a concussion during the second half of yesterday’s Pool B game in Kutaisi. He will be replaced in the squad by Munster’s Conor Fitzgerald.

Winger Colm Hogan has failed to recover from the ankle injury he picked up in Ireland’s U-20 Championship opener against Italy, and fellow Munster man Liam Coombes has been called up as his replacement.

Ireland, who have two losing bonus points after the opening two rounds, face pool leaders New Zealand on Thursday at Kutaisi Stadium (kick-off 3.30pm local time/12.30pm Irish time). The match will be broadcast live on eir Sport 1 and will be live-streamed on the World Rugby website in certain countries.

With the Baby Blacks next up for his side, Ireland U-20 head coach Peter Malone said: “For us, we’ve just got to recover and relax – not beat ourselves up because we’ve got three more games in this tournament no matter what happens.

“We’ll probably refresh the team, bring a few new boys in to give them a chance and also to give the guys a chance to recover because they’ve put in two big shifts against Italy and Scotland.

“Results haven’t gone our way and sometimes it’s more important they recover because mentally guys are low at the moment (after two losses). We’ll recover well, review the game. we’ll throw a few guys in to give them a chance against New Zealand, we’ll try our best and and go hard against New Zealand.”

Hooker Ronan Kelleher, who impressed against Scotland in his first start at U-20 level, added: “(The defeat) was tough to take. It was dead heat out there. All credit to the Scots, they played the conditions very well and played a good game.

“We really need to tighten up a few areas which let us down, our accuracy probably let us down. We really need to come together as a group now and have a big performance against New Zealand.”