IRELAND v GREAT BRITAIN BULLDOGS

Saturday 4th Septmber 2004

Derby, England - 18:30 kick-off.

The Ireland team travels to the UK this weekend to face the Great Britain Bulldogs. The game is being played at Derby Moorways Sports Ground, kick-off 6:30pm. The Great Britain Bulldogs are the representative team of the British Collegiate American Football Association (BCAFA), i.e. College football in the UK. The BCAFA has over 30 teams, and so their representative squad should be of a very high standard. After playing against Ireland, the Bulldogs will go to California to play 2 games including one against Menlo Park Oaks, a Division III NCAA team. The Ireland team is experimental in its make-up due to a lot of experienced players being unavailable because of the proximity of the fixture to the IAFL play-offs and Shamrock Bowl. However, there is some good talent on it and many of the players will be using this game to try and stake their cliams to starting positions for the upcoming NYPD game in October. The bulk of the players come from either the Dublin Dragons and Cork Admirals, both of whom have very young squads. The average age of the team will be quite young, with a significant number of those selected still being eligible for U19 competition. For the first time since the restart of the National Program, the squad also includes a small number of overseas based Irish players. Coach DeMonte is confident that the Ireland team will perform well against the Bulldogs. The Ireland team flys into East Midlands Airport at lunchtime on Saturday, going directly to the stadium on arrival, and returns to Ireland the following afternoon.

IRELAND SQUAD