Prior to the Three International Friendly between the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand, eighteen players were honoured for their participation with the team in the 2018/2019 campaign. FAI President Donal Conway and High-Performance Director Ruud Dokter presented the cap to each player. The year's programme included a resounding victory against the Irish Defence Forces in Athlone Town Stadium and a narrow 1-0 defeat to France in Bordeaux.

It is the third campaign in a row that the team has been awarded international caps following an amalgamation of representative sides from the Colleges FAI (CFAI) and Irish Universities (IUFU) in 2015. The partnership follows the success of the Colleges and Universities Football League where the players are selected from to represent their country.

Eight Colleges and Universities had representation in the team led by Head Coach Greg Yelverton. Thirteen of the team would also represent Team Ireland at the 2019 Summer Universiade where they would finish 8th following games against South Korea, Uruguay, Russia, Ukraine and France.

It was a night to remember for Third Level Football both on and off the pitch as Sean Maguire, who spent some time studying in IT Carlow, netted his first senior international goal in the 3-1 victory against the All-Whites.

Speaking at the presentation, FAI National Coordinator for Schools and Third Level Football Mark Scanlon was delighted to give the students the recognition for representing their country in International Football.

“When we speak to young players about continuing their education, one of the factors we ask them to consider is the opportunity to receive international honours as they study. Already in the three years of this joint initiative by the CFAI and IUFU, some of our top young players have come through this pathway and progressed higher on the international pathway and into professional football. The list of players that have been capped at Colleges and Universities level has a growing stardom to it with the likes of Liam Scales, Sean McLoughlin, and Georgie Kelly all being previous recipients of caps. Their progress is a fantastic compliment of the development of Third Level Football and shines the way for future players to come”.

Colleges and Universities 2018/2019 Squad
Paul Martin, Darryl Walsh (Both Waterford IT), Aaron Dobbs, Jamie Hollywood, Joe Manley, Michael Scott (All TU Dublin), David Coffey, Pierce Phillips, David Hurley, Rob Slevin, Gordon Walker, Simon Falvey (All UCC), Alan O’Sullivan, Dean Kelly (Both IT Carlow), Ronan Young (Queen’s University Belfast), Sean McSweeney (University of Limerick), Tristan Noack Hofmann (Dublin City University) Cillian Duffy (Maynooth University)