London Irish have named their side for tomorrow’s Premiership Rugby Under-18 Academy clash against Bristol at Hazelwood (kick-off 12pm).
Patrick O’Grady’s men come into this weekend’s fixture on the back of last Saturday’s narrow 38-31 defeat at the hands of Saracens. Playing at Allianz Park, the Exiles fledglings gave a good account of themselves with a spirited attacking display which yielded four tries.
“The lads put in a real shift against a strong Saracens' side and we were unfortunate not to come away with the win,” said O’Grady.
“They can be proud of their performance, and the encouraging thing for me is that the performances are getting better each week.
“We have a good group of players coming through at London Irish at present, and I’m looking forward to seeing more from them in the weeks to come.
“The majority of our team is made up of lower 6th players and the under-16’s which bodes well for the future,” he added.
Meanwhile, the London Irish Academy under-15 side underlined that the future is bright within the Academy ranks as they defeated Worcester Warriors by six tries to three.
Academy chief O’Grady added: “There are lots of talent coming through at the club at present and there is another 80 players who did not feature against Worcester, still to feature for us – as a club we can’t wait to see them in action.
“A lot of hard work is going into our four Bronze Academy sites and the excellent coaching.”
London Irish: 15 Connor Burns, 14 Ronan Maloney, 13 Inya Rarawa, 12 Rory McMichael, 11 Jack Jesty, 10 Russell Bennett, 9 Harry Delaney, 1 Ben Connor , 2 Callum Torpey, 3 Jamie Henson, 4 Ben Donnell, 5 Harry Butler, 6 Elliot Quinton, 7 Henry Fuller, 8 Josh Basham
Replacements: 16 Jimmy Barrett, 17 Sam Drayson, 18 Joe Toguri, 19 Max Ayling, 20 Josh Smart, 21 Sam Bridges, 22 Reuben Knight, 23 Oscar Blanchard
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