Neil Doak has been appointed as the Ireland Under-20 head coach for the 2025 Six Nations Championship, succeeding fellow Ulsterman Willie Faloon, who led the national age-grade side to the semi-finals of the World Championship last summer.
Doak was called into that coaching group for the tournament in South Africa when Richie Murphy stepped away to take charge at Ulster following last season’s Under-20 Six Nations.
A former Ireland cricket international, Doak previously served as both attack coach and interim head coach with Ulster, and has also worked with Worcester Warriors, Georgia and Emerging Ireland. He also coached the Irish Under-18 team and the Combined Academies in recent seasons.
The 52-year-old former Ulster scrumhalf has two sons in the provincial set-up, Nathan, who plays scrumhalf with the senior side, and Cameron, a prop in the Academy. Ian Keatley continues in his role as backs’ coach from last year’s Six Nations and Under-20 World Championship, while former Connacht secondrow Andrew Browne and Seamus Toomey complete the coaching team.
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Doak has overseen a number of preparatory camps at the IRFU High Performance Centre in recent weeks. An extended Ireland Under-20s squad will step up preparations for the Six Nations in the coming weeks, as they face Italy Under-20s in a non-cap match on Friday, December 20th at Templeville Road (2.0).
The squad will also go head-to-head with a Leinster Development XV at Energia Park on Saturday, January 4th (5.0). Doak will then select his squad for the Six Nations which gets under way against England in Musgrave Park.
Doak said: “It is a huge honour to take on the role of Ireland Men’s Under-20s Head Coach, and a challenge I am massively excited about. We have had a number of camps in the HPC and the application, hard work and commitment of the players has been really impressive.
“We have a lot of work to get through in preparation for the Under-20 Six Nations, but the group are focused on building positively day-by-day and the upcoming matches against Italy and the Leinster Development XV over the Christmas and new year period present us with an invaluable opportunity to build that cohesion and momentum.
“We look forward to the challenges ahead, starting off with the visit of England where the Ireland Under-20s have received incredible support from the people of Cork in recent years, and we are determined to continue our excellent home record there and produce a performance we can be proud of.”
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