Connacht Rugby has signed four new players to its academy this week.
Darragh Leader (19 ) who earned his first competitive start for the province last week against defending league champions Ospreys, will join his older Tadhg Leader, who is currently in his second year of the academy.
Twenty-year-old fullback Steve Macauley, who has appeared with the Eagles in both B&I Cup fixtures, was a standout player in the 2010 Leinster Schools Cup for Clongowes Wood College and has represented Ireland at u-18 Schools level.
Scrumhalf Marcus Walsh played with the Connacht u-20s last season before being contracted to the Connacht Academy. The former Blackrock College schoolboy has been a predominant fixture in all Connacht Eagles games this season and has also represented Ireland at u-18 Schools level.
Up front, 20-year-old Peter Reilly joins the Academy as tighthead prop. A former Castleknock College pupil, Reilly was part of the u-20 squad that recorded a highest ever fifth place in the 2012 IRB Junior World Championship last summer.
