Ulster defence coach Jonny Bell has immediately left the club by mutual consent to pursue a career outside of rugby.
Ulster defence coach Jonny Bell has immediately left the club by mutual consent to pursue a career outside of rugby.
Easterby, who will become the interim Ireland Test team coach when Farrell is on his sabbatical in charge of the 2025 British and Irish Lions, has named a 33-strong squad for the upcoming fixtures in Bloenfointein versus the Pumas, Western Force and the Cheetahs.
England U20s may have won the ultimate prize but Ireland's young conveyor belt of talent shows no sign of grinding to a halt
Defeat when a team hasn’t performed fully is the worst kind of loss. That was the ordeal Ireland were put through in Cape Town on Sunday, oscillating from a highly competitive first-half effort in a World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final that finished with them only trailing England 22-20 to not firing a single shot in a second period where they were held scoreless and drably lost 31-20.
It was last Tuesday following match day three when the appetising semi-final line-up was confirmed, pitting Rugby Championship champions New Zealand against defending World Rugby champions France just 10 days after they served up a July 4 thriller in Stellenbosch while Six Nations champions England will go head-to-head with runners-up Ireland 18 weeks after they conjured a compelling 32-all classic at Bath.
The Irish, who had nine points after two matches, were due to take on Australia, who had six points, on Tuesday in the final round of the group stage at the tournament.
The Irish looked set to be beaten as they had surrendered an early 12-0 lead and were trailing 15-16 and were fortunate not to be 15-22 behind as the Eastern Europeans missed a pair of kickable penalties when tensing up coming down the finishing straight.
The Irish were impressive 55-15 opening day winners over Italy last Saturday at DHL Stadium and Willie Faloon has now changed four forwards and three backs for Thursday’s clash with Georgia in Stellenbosch.
Numerous winning teams caught the eye on Saturday across the opening round of the World Rugby U20 Championship, but Ireland deserve a shout-out for the manner of their comprehensive dismissal of Italy in the middle game at DHL Stadium.