MUNSTER HAVE ADDED recent signing Ben O\u2019Donovan to their Challenge Cup squad ahead of Saturday\u2019s Round of 16 visit to Exeter.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Kiwi scrum-half, who is Irish-qualified, recently signed for Munster on an 18-month deal and will hope to make his debut soon.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donovan featured for the New Zealand U20s in 2024, but he had yet to play a senior professional game of rugby before joining Munster.<\/p>\n
He has now been added to Clayton McMillan\u2019s Challenge Cup squad, along with prop loosehead prop Mark Donnelly and out-half Tom Wood.<\/p>\n
20-year-old Wood, the son of Ireland legend Keith, starred for the Ireland U20s in their recent Triple Crown-winning campaign in the Six Nations, as well as getting his first senior Munster cap off the bench in the URC.<\/p>\n
25-year-old Donnelly spent time on loan with Ealing Trailfinders in England earlier this season but returned to Munster in January.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Leinster have bolstered their Champions Cup squad by bringing Ireland internationals Jamie Osborne and Ryan Baird into their group, along with scrum-half Cormac Foley.<\/p>\n
Osborne was injured earlier this season but returned in style at fullback with Ireland for the Six Nations, then shone at inside centre for Leinster against the Scarlets last weekend.<\/p>\n
Blindside flanker\/lock Baird has been out of action since the November Tests, missing the entire Six Nations, but he is due to make his return from a fractured leg imminently.<\/p>\n
26-year-old Foley has been on loan with the Ospreys of Wales, playing twice in the URC, but has now returned to the Leinster set-up.<\/p>\n
Leo Cullen\u2019s men face Edinburgh in the Champions Cup Round of 16 this Sunday in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Connacht have made two additions to their Challenge Cup squad ahead of their clash with the Sharks on Friday in Galway.<\/p>\n
Wing Shayne Bolton, who has been sidelined since December with a foot injury, and academy scrum-half Albert Lindner, who got his senior debut in January, come into Stuart Lancaster\u2019s group.<\/p>\n
Finally, Ulster have added three players to their Challenge Cup squad before Saturday\u2019s home meeting with the Ospreys in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n
Tighthead prop Tom McAllister, centre Jonathan Scott, and back row James McKillop have been called in.<\/p>\n
21-year-old McAllister scored a try on his second start for Ulster last weekend against Zebre, while 20-year-old Scott recently made his senior debut against Connacht.<\/p>\n
As for the Irish provinces\u2019 opponents this weekend, Edinburgh have called in tighthead D\u2019Arcy Rae, back row Luke Crosbie, and centre Mosese Tuipulotu.<\/p>\n
Exeter have added back row\u00a0Ross Vintcent, centre Nick Lilley, and back row Finn Worley-Brady.<\/p>\n
The Sharks have registered exciting 19-year-old fullback Luan Giliomee, lock Johannes Slabbert, and back row Frederick Potgieter.<\/p>\n
And the Ospreys have bolstered their group with fit-again back row Jac Morgan, lock\/flanker Ben Roberts, and wing Harri Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNSTER HAVE ADDED recent signing Ben O\u2019Donovan to their Challenge Cup squad ahead of Saturday\u2019s Round of 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[56840,56839,33552,71791,18,19,17,38909,5599,132,41016],"class_list":["post-411893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-challenge-cup","tag-champions-cup","tag-changes","tag-connacht","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster","tag-munster","tag-sports","tag-ulster"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116319435071303285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}