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4th February 2015
12:42pm GMT

Tierney said "There is a natural changeover with the number of players retiring after last season, but there is a core group of senior players that are very experienced and talented. We also have a number of younger players who are very talented and have a lot of promise so it's a good mix. It's going to be a very tough game over in Italy, we are under no illusions, but we are going over there very confident that we will be competitive.'
IRELAND WOMEN Briggs (captain); Tyrrell, Murphy, Shiels, Miller; Stapleton, Muldoon; O'Reilly, Bourke, Egan; Reilly, Spence; Fitzpatrick, Molloy, O'Brien Replacements: Mimnagh, Hayes, O'Brien, Fitzsimons, Norris, Rosser, Fitzhenry, Naoupu.*The game kicks off at 7pm (Irish time) will be streamed live on www.Federugby.it and www.youtube.com/fedrugby
The Ireland U21s [men] also have a new hand at the coaching tiller. Nigel Carolan has six players returning to his squad that featured in last year's competition.
Garry Ringrose, who trained with the senior Ireland squad in November, is named outside centre while Nick McCarthy starts at scrum-half, alongside Ross Byrne for a match that kicks off at 6pm (Irish time) on Friday.
U21s: Billy Dardis; Greg O'Shea, Garry Ringrose, Fergal Cleary, Jack Owens; Ross Byrne, Nick McCarthy (captain); Jeremy Loughman, Zack McCall, Oisin Heffernan; David O'Connor, Alex Thompson; Josh Murphy, Rory Moloney, Lorcan Dow.
Replacements: Adam McBurney, Michael Lagan, Conan O'Donnell, Cian Romaine, Nick Timoney, Jack Cullen, Joey Carbery, Sam Arnold.
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