An Ireland Under-20 women’s team will travel to Italy next month to take on the host nation and Scotland in a series of training matches. The 26-player squad, who will be sponsored by PwC like their male counterparts, will be confirmed on Wednesday next week.
France and England already have Under-20 age-grade teams and this venture seems like a precursor to the establishment of a Women’s Under-20 Nations Championship in the near future.
The launch of the Ireland Women’s Under-20 programme represents progress and a positive step for the underage pathway for female rugby players in this country. A panel of 44 players recently assembled at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre (HPC) in Dublin for a screening camp overseen by the Women’s National Talent squad and Talent Identification manager, Katie Fitzhenry.
Players selected were identified for their performances from this season’s Energia All-Ireland League, Celtic Challenge, Vodafone Interprovincial Championship, as well as the 2022 Under-16 and Under-18 Sevens Interprovincial Championships and the Under-18 Women’s Six Nations Festival.
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Former Ulster women’s senior head coach Neill Alcorn will act in that capacity for the Irish Women’s 20s, and he will be assisted by Matt Gill and Larissa Muldoon, all three recently appointed to staff roles with the women’s national talent squad pathway. The 26-player squad will convene for a weeklong camp at the HPC on Monday, July 16th, before travelling to Rome the following Friday.
Ireland will train against Italy and Scotland at Stadio Tommaso Fattori in L’Aquila, before going head-to-head in two 40-minutes matches on Friday, July 28th in seeking to expose the players to valuable training and match time against international opposition.
Fitzhenry said: “We’re delighted to be adding another important layer to our women’s pathway with an Ireland women’s Under-20s squad coming together for the first time this summer. The national and provincial talent coaches have been working hard to identify players from all levels of our pathway structure in recent months and we had 44 players come together last weekend for a really positive screening camp.
“It is an exciting opportunity for us to further accelerate the development of our best young talent, with players not only being exposed to a high-performance environment and high-quality coaching, strength and conditioning, nutritional and medical support whilst in camp in Dublin, but then being given the chance to test those skills against their peers from Italy and Scotland.”
Feargal O’Rourke, PwC Ireland Managing Partner, said: “At PwC we fully support the addition and development of the Ireland Women’s Under-20s team. Nurturing and recognising excellence in talent is paramount to the future success of all our communities.
“Sponsoring the team strengthens our support of Irish sport and, in particular, reinforces our commitment to increasing the profile and participation of women in sport. We wish the team every success in the upcoming tour to Italy.”
