2003 Ireland rugby union tour of the Southern Hemisphere
Series of rugby union matches / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ireland national rugby union team toured the South Seas in June 2003, playing matches against Australia, Tonga and Samoa. Head coach Eddie O'Sullivan initially selected a squad of 41 players for the tour. Keith Wood also travelled with the tour party as an additional player for training purposes.[1] However Rob Henderson, Denis Hickie and Anthony Foley all subsequently withdrew due to injuries[2][3] and Frankie Sheahan had to return home after testing positive for Salbutamol.[4] Aiden McCullen and Mike Mullins were both then called up as replacements. Mark McHugh marked his senior international debut with a try against Tonga, while McCullen and Anthony Horgan made their senior international debuts against Samoa. In the same game, Ronan O'Gara gave a man of the match performance, scoring 32 of Ireland's 40 points.
2003 Ireland rugby union tour of the Southern Hemisphere | |||||
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Coach(es) | Eddie O'Sullivan | ||||
Top test point scorer(s) | Ronan O'Gara (45) | ||||
Top test try scorer(s) | John Kelly (3) | ||||
Summary |
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Total |
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Test match |
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Tour chronology | |||||
Previous tour | New Zealand 2002 | ||||
Next tour | South Africa 2004 |