The Emerging Ireland coaching ticket of Allen Clarke and Girvan Dempsey, working in tandem with the Ireland Coaching Team, have named a squad of 27 players to travel to Georgia to compete in the World Rugby Tbilisi Cup in June.
Ulster forwards coach Allen Clarke and Leinster's Academy Manager Girvan Dempsey take charge of an Emerging Ireland squad who will face off against Emerging Italy, Uruguay and Georgia.
Emerging Ireland Coach, Allen 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 Emerging Ireland squad and the Tbilisi Cup 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 will face off against Emerging Italy in their opening game of the tournament on Saturday 13th June. Four days later they take on Uruguay with their final game coming against the host nation Georgia on Sunday 21st June. Both Uruguay and Georgia will compete in this year's Rugby World Cup in England.
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)
Emerging Ireland Fixtures
Emerging Italy v EMERGING IRELAND
Saturday 13th June 17:00 (14:00 GMT)
Uruguay v EMERGING IRELAND
Wednesday 17th June 17:00 (14:00 GMT)
Georgia v EMERGING IRELAND
Sunday 21st June 19:00 (16:00 GMT)
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
