A bigger, faster and more experienced Iona College first XV squad will start the 2021 AIC competition with plenty of confidence next weekend.

Seven players return from last year’s side and will play alongside some exciting young talent who will likely push for a first XV jersey at some stage this season, according to Head of Sport Keith Harron.

Overview with Keith Harron: 

“The AIC competition this year is going to be really even I think,” Harron told Rugby News.

“Traditionally Marist College Ashgrove are really strong in all age groups, but this year you wouldn’t think that there is a team that really stands out at the moment given the preseason results so far.

“The 2020 season was quite interrupted by Covid and although we played some games, it all came to a pretty abrupt end before we got to the playoffs. It’s hard to get a gauge of last year’s results to help predict what is going to happen this season.

“Our first XV side probably didn’t perform as well as we would have liked last year but we had a lot of success with some of our younger teams.

“We were shaping up to play Marist College Ashgrove in numerous playoff games across the age groups but unfortunately they all got cancelled.