Under 20's interprovincial championship.

Congrats to Connacht on their win against Munster yesterday, giving them the interpro title, their first in 10 years. They managed to do it the hard way, too, with wins in Ravenhill and Donnybrook, before finishing off yesterday in Athlone.

The biggest question is will they be able to take these young players and develop them into decent professionals. They would certainly be a tougher prospect in the future with home grown talent, rather than relying on cast offs from the other three provinces. The only player I've heard of is Qualter, and after watching him in the JWC I can't say I was impressed.

Still, all for another day I guess. I'm going off topic on my own topic!

Full results:

ROUND 1 -

MUNSTER 9 LEINSTER 13, Musgrave Park
ULSTER 19 CONNACHT 22, Ravenhill

ROUND 2 -

LEINSTER 16 CONNACHT 19, Donnybrook
ULSTER 17 MUNSTER 9, Deramore Park

ROUND 3 -

CONNACHT 32 MUNSTER 18, Dubarry Park
LEINSTER 33 ULSTER 13, Donnybrook

Do these matches exclude players who are getting regular game time with their Province?

There are quite a few U20s here in Ulster who don't seem to have featured in these matches.

Do they have to be released by there Province if they are on full or development contracts?

I could see how that would be a problem especially in a RWC year.

Yeah MrsP, generally speaking guys like Gilroy and Jackson have been withheld as they are involved in the first team. But that's not to take anything away from Connachts achievement. It's absolutely fantastic.

No! Absolutely not!

I was just wondering if those player are inelligible.

Great to see the Westies have got home grown talent coming through.

Well done to Connacht!
Though what on earth happens to these players?

It's curious that Connacht can produce the best group of young Irish lads, yet scour Welsh regions for rejects with Irish grannies, to fulfill it;s quota of Irish qualified players.

Will the better ones be hovered up by Ulster, Leinster and Munster or do they simply drift out of the game because Connacht don't have the same status within Irish rugby as the other 3 teams?

I don't think many U20 players move province Alyn. Note that this is, I think, the first ever win for Connacht U20s over Ulster. I don't say that to boast about our record, but rather to illustrate this seems to be a very good crop of young players at Connacht just this season- they're not consistently dominant or anything.

It's very encouraging for them going forward. We'll see. Last season the U20 side was dominated by Leinster with Ulster providing the bulk of the rest. Some of those players are already playing senior rugby.

Maybe this year Connacht will provide a good few players to the U20 side. They really need their own homegrown players to come through if they're going to compete with the other three.

Do they now have the same budget as the other teams?
Or are they still pushed to the back of the queue.

I think we're starting to see the fruits of improved systems in schools in Connacht with more and more schools playing.

With the risk of being crucified by any proud Connacht fans (and well done to them) I'm wondering if this isn't so much an improvement at Connacht rather than a drop in standards everywhere else, or at least a poor crop?

We didn't have a great JWC and we had a large Connacht representation. Not that I'm blaming them, just that normally the quality is better from the other provinces and we have a better time of it at the championship.

A better time of it at the championship? We have been pretty awful since the inception of the U20s 4 years ago.

Well, better performances, then. We looked particularly awful this time round. Of the Connacht players at the JWC only O'Halloran and Conneely stood out for me, I've heard a lot about Qualter, but he looked unfit and not particularly useful.

I wouldn't read too much into the JWC as Ireland will always struggle there since they just don't have enough big forwards to compete with the likes of SA and England.

However Connacht this year probably have the biggest forwards of the four provinces with Qualter, Connelly, and McKeon and that gives them a 'big' advantage. McKeon and O'Halloran also have senior experience which again gives them an edge.

Another factor in Connacht's success is that the other provinces are much harder hit by the RWC. For example Ulster have had to call up Annett, Carey, Jackson, Marshall, McIlroy, McKinney and Gilroy because of senior duties.

Munster must be a bit worried though!

Jackson, Marshall and Gilroy were always going to be in the senior squad, though, weren't they?

Marshal, Gilroy, McKeon, O'Halloran, McKinney and Annett are all overage for 20s this season.

Is it not done by calendar year?

It is, but they work so that the players who play in this are eligible to play at U20 level in the Six Nations and iRB Junior World Championship in 2012.

Hope that makes sense.

Think the last JWC is a poor judge of the standard of young players as many of them weren't at their best plus Ruddock chopped and changed regularly and seemed to go into it wanting to experiment and give the guys experience and didn't go there to win which is a shame looking at was available to them

Thanks MBTGOG. I'm a bit surprised that JJ Hanrahan and Shane Buckley will still be playing next year as they already look far more experienced than those around them.

Since Ireland are pulling out of next year's JWC, I asked the father of one of the Ulster players whether it was a good move or not. He said both he and his son were totally behind the withdrawal from a player welfare pov. The main reason being that the interruption to their pre-season is bad for their provincial aspirations and longer term development.

Is it safe to assume that the 6N age criterion is also determined by the same calendar year, and therefore there is no benefit to the Ireland selection pool as opposed to say England (who will be picking their team with the JWC also in mind)?

Are Ireland definitely pulling out?

Yeah, Hanrahan and Buckley look very good. Good news.