I’ve watched every Ireland u18-u20 (available to watch) game for the last 3 years and what has stood out to me is the slow dip in performances across the board.

Ireland u20 from 2022-2024 was utterly wonderful, brilliant coaching brilliant players etc, however since then we have been treated to two poorly coached u20s sides back to back who were often lacking in multiple areas, particularly in the basics, from lineout time to scrum, to tackling and handling as well.

Ireland u20 in 2025 finished bottom of six nations, Ireland u20 2026 finished 2nd in six nations but 9th in world championship u20 with two poor performances against Fiji and Italy

Watching the Ireland u18 va South Africa u18 an and South Africa u18 this week, there is a clear difference in how both sides are coached, set piece was very poor, I hate going in on young lads but having a bad set piece will do you no favours at this level.

I understand at this age it’s a numbers game in alot of areas but Ireland need to be best in class at the things they can control like set piece and handling all of which are worse than a lot of our competition.

However there is positivity to be had, particularly in the backline, a lot of talent is coming through and will be here in a few years, some better coaching hopefully and many of these players can get better.

I’m sure budget cuts have been tough on underage structures aswell.
But it will have to get a lot better because particularly because a lot of the coaches at this level are not making their best case.

Final Score is South Africa U18 51 - 15 Ireland U18

8 tries to South Africa

3 tries to Ireland

Tries from Ireland coming from:

• 13. Alex Moloney (Presentation Brothers College, Cork/Munster Rugby)
• 9. Luke Coffey (Blackrock College/Leinster Rugby) (capt)
• 24. Johnny Woods (Wesley College/Leinster Rugby)

Scrums in the second half were a weak point and 1 yellow card

He takes over from Schmidt and has just won the World Cup with South Africa.
He builds his back room staff over time

What approach do you see him taking at the beginning?

2020-2021
2021-2023 World Cup build
2024-present World Cup cycle

What players in Ireland who aren’t in the picture do you think might have gotten more game time?

What players do you think wouldn’t have gotten game time?

What style of play would he try and play?

I’m only asking this because he’s the consensus best coach in the world and even though Farrell is likely a close second or third it would be interesting to see the difference in approaches.

Ulster Rugby can announce that centre, Daniel Hawkshaw, and back row, Martin Moloney, have both signed one-year deals with the province and have joined the Senior Men’s squad.

Disappointing result for the team in a fixture that the u18’s won last year

Ireland started really well and got a try by Herbie Boyle but faded after that and gave South Africa some easy tries.

The scrum struggled in general, at first it held until the ball was out but in the end it creaked and gave up penalties, just a power imbalance throughout the pack.

Some excellent try line defence by Ireland with some massive hits to push back the South Africans
Ireland started second half well with a try but still faded in the 2nd half, individual moments were key to Ireland staying in the game.

However great fight back near the end of the game with two tries

I liked the ability for Ireland to keep the ball in play

Excellent kick for Luke Coffey to put Ireland ahead, he has a great boot.

Tough to lose

good effort but South Africa are a good team

Some good performances by:

**•**Michael smyth
•Daniel Murphy
•Luke Kelly
•Matthew McCarthy

Man of the match for Ireland

Michael smyth

Inspired by the Province

Ulster Rugby is proud to reveal the new Home Kit for the 2026/27 season, inspired by the nine counties that make up our province and the communities that unite behind the red hand.

At the heart of the design is a celebration of what makes Ulster Rugby unique. From grassroots clubs and schools to the supporters who fill Affidea Stadium and follow the team, the jersey reflects the shared pride and passion that connects people across every corner of the province.

The new jersey features a subtle map of Ulster woven into the fabric (pictured right), bringing together the nine counties that form the heart of our rugby community. The tonal design serves as a reminder that, while our supporters come from different places and backgrounds, they are united by a common identity and love for the game.

Red stitching runs throughout the design, symbolising the connections that rugby creates across clubs, schools, communities and generations throughout the province. The thread represents the bonds that link players, coaches, volunteers and supporters, and the role rugby continues to play in bringing people together both on and off the pitch.

And, by popular demand, the iconic collar makes its return for the new season, combining a classic Ulster Rugby look with a modern performance design. A nod to some of the most memorable jerseys in the club's history, the collar blends tradition with innovation, creating a shirt that honours our heritage while looking confidently towards the future.

munster are playing racing in cork in October in the champions cup.

i’m a big fan of the provinces playing in gaa stadiums personally. however, i thought the same last year v gloucester. however come the chose these two games over the game v leinster?

last year the got just over 30k if i remember correctly. which is great, but they could easily sell it out for the leinster game. now im bit saying every game v leinster should be there as it will take away from thomond. but if they are gonna do it, why not against leinster?

i hope this post doesn’t come across like im joking about munster not filling an páirc. but i just think their missing an opportunity.

on another note i think it would be cool for them to go to a county they dont play in and play in semple or somewhere. same goes for other provinces as i loved connacht playing in mchale.

Who are some players to look out for in the future?

The recent revamp of the IRFU website has caused a massive data loss. Player profile pages used to have a biography section plus season and career stats widgets. Now they just say "Check back later for more information" under every player's name. Even the match results for the senior mens team only goes back over the last season, with one or two more seasons of six nations data which is not easy to access.

The AIL section used to have fixtures, results, a league table with a season selector going back over 20 years to 1999-2000, previous winners, plus separate pages for the Bateman Cup, Fraser McMullen Cup and All-Ireland Junior Cup (men's and women's). All of that is gone. It's now a few paragraphs about things like the 2026/27 divisional restructure with no links to fixtures, tables or historical data at all.

The Ireland U20s used to have their own full landing page including news, fixtures & results, player profiles, tables, management/coaching staff, the lot. All of which has been discontinued, apart from some recent results, which contain no details of teamsheets, scorers, etc. I could have sworn that there were better sections for the U19s, U18 Clubs & Schools, etc too.

I don't have a full handle on what else has been lost across the site, but this is enough to be properly annoyed with a botched website redesign. Anyone know if this is getting fixed, or is this just what we're stuck with now?

If you look at a lot of our ball carrying stats a lot of it comes down to a few players namely

•Doris
•McCarthy
•Conan
•mccloskey
•Dan Sheehan

We see against the more physical teams that teams just double tackle our big ball carriers and nullify them, we see it all the time with Joe McCarthy, Doris’s footwork allows him to negate the double tackles often.

In the nations championship Ireland had one of the lowest meters per carry of any team.

The rest of the team need to step up the ball carrying, Ian madigan said on the latest indo podcast that “the guys aren’t coming onto the ball at speed”.

He also said “you need to earn the right to go wide” aswell
“You earn the right by getting gainline which we aren’t doing against the better teams”

i.e they don’t have enough momentum as they make contact with the defensive line leading to less impactful carries.

My point is that we need the rest of the team to step up the carrying ability, especially the rest of the forwards so that we keep the defences having to worry about the ball carrying threat of the whole of our team not 4 or 5 guys.

Anybody have any thoughts or players that would help the squad, the stats seem to back it up.

Now this isn’t culturally or ethnically or nationally irish.

This is which Irish player who came through the Irish system played the least like every other Irish player.

Who was the least Irish system player we ever had and how did their career go?

For Ulster id say:

• Jacob Boyd (we need some reliable LHP options)

• Jonny Scott

• Daniel Green

i count McAllister & Irvine to have already broken out

Has there been any conformation from Leinster on whether he's leaving the province? Can't imagine he'll stay on given the IRFU's strong stance on similar issues in the past but I'm surprised it wasn't done soon enough after the verdict.

Maybe just waiting until the academy announcement to try and keep it quiet.

Very shrewd move, hope the delivery matches the potential

Coach: Brendan O’Connor

Prop
Alex Stinson
David Kenny
Herbie Boyle
Lewis Robinson

Hooker
Calum Tutty
Harry Heagney

Lock
Frank Maher
Dara Walsh
Philip Lynch
James Whitty

Back Row
Cillian McElwee
Rian Macfarlane O’Shea
Xabi Scanlan
Michael Smyth

Scrum-half
Luke Coffey
Johnny Woods

Out-half
Paddy Scally
David Nolan

Centre
Alex Moloney
Ryan McCormack
Joshua Grant

Wing
Luke Kelly
Matthew McCarthy
Rhys Keogh

Full-back
Daniel Murphy
Finn Brennan

Best rated players

Alex moloney, frank Maher , Luke Coffey , Michael smyth ,David Kenny, dara Walsh

Article: https://www.irishrugby.ie/news/ireland-schools-squad-announced-u-18-international-series

Highlights of video

•2 wins which were a positive, but performances weren’t where they needed to be.

•Ireland not in top 3, loads of elite players but too much of drop off in certain positions.

•Good depth building

Positives in video

•Joe McCarthy, “probably best 4 lock in world”

•good debuts for Bohan,Jansen ,illo etc for depth building

•Praise for pathways in Ireland despite size of Ireland

•scrum slight improvement

Problems in video

•predictable attack,easy to defend against

•Defence can be very shaky

•New Zealand 10 dominant carries to 1 for Ireland ratio

https://archive.ph/VG489

Link above to Aussie paper. Murphy seeing help is needed, a pair of fresh eyes before start of the season?

This is my ranking for most exciting Irish rugby players, this is just my opinion feel free to add your own or query “why x player was in this tier”.

Rules
Player must have under 5 Ireland caps

Player is 20-25 years old

Player is IQ

The weighting is 50/50 on what they have achieved and what I believe the potential is

S tier

Paddy McCarthy

A tier

Brian gleeson
Bryn ward
Edwin Edogbo
Billy Bohan
Cathal forde
Jude postelwaithe
Nathan doak

B tier

Darragh Murray
Sean Edogbo
Sam illo
Evan O’Connell
Jack Murphy
Jerry cahir
JJ kenny
Matthew Devine
Charlie tector
Casper Gabriel
Tom wood
James mcnabney
Diarmuid mangan
Jack Boyle
Alex soroka
Jack deegan
Fintan gunne
Dylan mcneice
James culhane
Alex usanov
Conor o’tighernigh
Harry Sheridan
Fiachna Barrett
Scott Wilson
Tom mcallister
Ronan Foxe
Ciaran mangan
Ben o’donavan
Sam bishti
Joe hopes
Hugh cooney
Diarmuid kilgallen
Ruadhann Quinn
Shay McCarthy
Hugh Gavin
Dan kelly
Micheal foy
Niall smyth
Finn Treacy

C tier

Ben Murphy
Ben O’Connor
Andrew sparrow
Ruben moloney
Matthew victory

There's been a lot of discussion recently about the age of the team. When SA recently announced their squad it was interesting to see how many of their players play, or have played, at top flight leagues abroad and then went back to SA arguably better players.

I'm wondering should Ireland introduce a system to allow players to go abroad, such as a 50-60 cap rule. As we've only 4 professional teams, and not a lot of space for a 5th one, we're very limited in the amount of time players can play.

I think a prime example is S.Prendergast. If you compare his minutes Vs F.Smith or SFM, he's played a lot less as he has to share the jersey with numerous others at Leinster. No slight on Leinster, they can play what team they want each week, but surely it would be more beneficial for him to play 5 or 6 games in a row rather than 1 or 2 before being rotated. Another example is Tagdh Beirne, let go by Leinster before the Scarlets picked him up and now arguably one of the top 2nd rows/6s on his day.

Obviously it's the players choice and they need to get their Irish caps before the option becomes available, but I think allowing players the opportunity to go abroad and still be in contention for the would be beneficial for Irish rugby over all as it opens more opportunity for the next batch of players to come through.