Former Ulster coach Neil Doak has been appointed as head coach of the Ireland U-20s for the 2025 Six Nations.
The experienced former scrum-half was part of the ticket under Willie Faloon for this year’s World Cup in South Africa and now steps up to the top job.
Doak will be assisted by former Connacht and Munster out-half Ian Keatley, ex Connacht second row Andrew Browne and Blackrock College scrum guru Seamus Toomey who has been linked with a set-piece role with the IRFU.
Ireland open their campaign against England in Cork and will warm up with a game against Italy on Friday week in St Mary’s and against a Leinster Development XV on January 4.
“It is a huge honour to take on the role of Ireland Men’s U-20s head coach, and a challenge I am massively excited about,” he said.
“We have had a number of camps in the High Performance Centre and the application, hard work and commitment of the players has been really impressive.
“We have a lot of work to get through in preparation for the U20 Six Nations, but the group are focused on building positively day-by-day and the upcoming matches against Italy and the Leinster Development XV over the Christmas and New Year period present us with an invaluable opportunity to build that cohesion and momentum.
“We look forward to the challenges ahead, starting off with the visit of England to Virgin Media Park, where the Ireland U20s have received incredible support from the people of Cork in recent years, and we are determined to continue our excellent home record there and produce a performance we can be proud of.”
Doak played cricket for Ireland at the same time as enjoying a career as a scrum-half for Ulster, before becoming a noted attack coach with his home province where he served as interim head coach while Les Kiss was still with Ireland, while he worked for Worcester Warriors between 2018 and 2020.
He was part of Kiss’s coaching ticket for Ireland’s 2013 summer tour of the United States and Canada and has also worked at international level with Emerging Ireland in 2014 and Georgia in 2020 when he worked alongside IRFU performance director David Humphreys.
In recent years, he’s been working in Ulster’s academy.