A statement from World Rugby read: “Due to heavy rainfall in the Cape Town region today, the pitch at the Athlone Sports Stadium has been assessed in partnership with organisers and match officials and currently declared not safe to play.
“As a result, the first match scheduled at the venue between the Ireland and Australia Under-20 teams has been cancelled, and as per the tournament rules, both teams have been awarded two competition points.”
That means that Willie Faloon’s charges advanced to the semi-finals as pool winners finishing with 11 points compared to Australia’s eight. Ireland had earlier beaten Italy and Georgia in the pool stages.
Ireland U20 captain Evan O'Connell, of UL-Bohemian, is a member of the Munster Academy and is a past pupil of Castletroy College.
Second-row O'Connell is joined in the Ireland U20 squad by his UL-Bohs clubmate Jake O'Riordan.
O’Connell, Garryowen and Munster back-row Brian Gleeson, Danny Sheahan, Hugh Gavin, and Sam Berman are the five returning players from last year's tournament, as Ireland finished runners-up behind France.
The Ireland U20 squad also includes exciting Shannon RFC forwards Luke Murphy and Emmet Calvey.
It is the first time ever that the Ireland Under-20s have reached back-to-back World Rugby U-20 Championship semi-finals, following on from last year’s second place finish when Richie Murphy was in charge of the team.
New Zealand will take on France in the second World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final on Sunday.
