Ireland under-20s to open World Rugby Championship campaign against Georgia

Ireland will play their opening fixture at the World Rugby Under-20 Championship against Georgia on Sunday, June 29th (5pm Irish time).

The game will be the opener of a Pool C double-header at the Stadio San Michele in Calvisano, with New Zealand and Italy playing in the second game (7.30pm).

In their second outing, Neil Doak’s side will face against the Italians, on Friday, July 4th at the Stadio Luigi Zaffanella in Viadana.

Ireland will return to Calvisano for their last pool game on Wednesday, July 9th, where they will face the Baby Blacks (5.30pm Irish time).

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The three pool winners and the best runner-up will contest the main semi-finals. Each team will play five matches in total with the side that finishes 12th relegated to the World Trophy competition.

Ireland won their pool in last season’s tournament in Cape Town but lost their semi-final to the eventual champions England, and subsequently lost the third-place playoff game against New Zealand.

Ireland have twice reached an Under-20 World Cup final – in 2016 when they lost to hosts England and in 2023 when they were beaten by France.

The current Irish squad finished bottom of the Six Nations, managing just a single victory over Scotland. Doak will hopefully have a stronger hand up front if Alan Spicer, Alex Usanov, Niall Smyth, Emmet Calvey and Luke Murphy, who missed the championship through injury, are back and available to play.

World Rugby also announced the 10 referees and five television match officials (TMOs) that will preside over the tournament, including Ireland’s Peter Martin and Leo Colgan.

The selected referees are Tomas Bertazza (Argentina), Ben Breakspear (Wales), Griffin Colby (South Africa), Katsuki Furuse (Japan), Peter Martin (Ireland), Marcus Playle (New Zealand), Jérémy Rozier (France), Filippo Russo (Italy), Lex Weiner (USA) and Morgan White (Hong Kong China).

The TMOs are Leo Colgan (Ireland), Graham Cooper (Australia), Aled Griffiths (Wales), Quinton Immelman (South Africa) and Dan Jones (RFU) with two of them – Colgan and Immelman – also selected for this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

World Rugby Talent ID manager and tournament referee manager, Ireland’s Johnny Lacey said: “The selection of this panel highlights the referees that are coming through our pathway system. We have been working closely with our unions and regions to increase the number of match officials in our pathway into World Rugby competitions.

“We are already starting to see the benefits with our talent identification programme providing four referees for this tournament and we are excited to see what the future holds for the officials involved in our men’s and women’s pathways.”

The World Championship final will take place in the Stadio Mario Battaglini in Rovigo on Saturday, July 19th (7.30pm Irish time).