He’s just a few weeks younger than Rory McIlroy but Rory McNamara is on course to finally find his feet on tour after a second round 67 catapulted him into contention for the Red Sea Egyptian Challenge.

The 26-year old EPD Tour player — a former winner of the North and West of Ireland Amateur titles — birdied four of his last seven holes in a seven-birdie round to share seventh place on eight under par at Sokhna Golf Club.

He’s five strokes adrift of England’s Jordan Smith, who added a 68 to his opening 63 to lead by two shots from Germany’s Philipp Mejow, who shot 65 to sit alone in second on 11 under

“I was very solid today,” Smith said. “It was always going to be hard to keep up what I did yesterday but I am very happy.

“I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens but I wasn’t quite close enough to the pins and didn’t quite hole as many putts as I did yesterday.

“I tried to play the same sort of aggressive style as I did in my first round but there were still a lot of pins tucked away. So my thinking today was more about damage limitation and to go more central to the middle of the greens and leave myself slightly easier putts.

“Winning twice on the Euro Pro Tour has given me confidence that I can go on and win. I am also used to leading from the front and will look to keep it going over the weekend.

“I will just try to do more of the same, keep on doing what I am doing well as I am very happy with how my game is so will keep going.”

Former Challenge Tour Rankings winner Espen Kofstad continued his good form in Egypt to reach third place on nine under par to share fourth place with Scotland’s Peter Whiteford (67). Swiss Joel Girrbach (65), Italy’s Lorenzo Gagli (67) and South Africa’s Jacques Blaauw (70).

All the Irish players bar McNamara missed the three under par halfway cut with Gareth Shaw (71-73) the closest on level par.

Chris Selfridge (70-75) was one over, Gavin Moynihan (74-72) two over, Alan Dunbar (71-76) three over, Brian Casey (73-75) and David Carey (70-78) four over

Scores after round  2:

131 J Smith (Eng) 63 68,

133 P Mejow (Ger) 68 65,

135 P Whiteford (Sco) 68 67, J Girrbach (Sui) 70 65, L Gagli (Ita) 67 68, E Kofstad (Nor) 66 69,

136 J Blaauw (RSA) 66 70, M Lundberg (Swe) 69 67, A Saddier (Fra) 68 68, R McNamara (Irl) 69 67, M Delpodio (Ita) 70 66, D Ulrich (Sui) 73 63,

137 M Wallace (Eng) 66 71, S Henry (Sco) 69 68, S Fernandez (Esp) 68 69, D Frittelli (RSA) 68 69, H Joannes (Bel) 72 65, J Sjöholm (Swe) 69 68, C Ford (Eng) 70 67, B Rusch (Sui) 70 67,

138 E Dubois (Fra) 68 70, E Johansen (Nor) 71 67, A Bernadet (Fra) 71 67, G Watremez (Bel) 72 66, S Brown (Eng) 69 69, O Stark (Swe) 70 68, S Heisele (Ger) 67 71, J Stalter (Fra) 65 73, T Ferrer (Esp) 69 69, G Porteous (Eng) 69 69,

139 H Casey (Eng) 68 71, G Piris Mateu (Esp) 67 72, V Riu (Fra) 68 71, J Barnes (Eng) 67 72, D Wuensche (Ger) 69 70, B Stow (Eng) 69 70, R Langasque (Fra) 67 72, A Maestroni (Ita) 68 71, J Wrisdale (Eng) 67 72, C Del Moral (Esp) 71 68, A Tadini (Ita) 70 69, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 67 72, M Trappel (Aut) 70 69,

140 T Bakker (Fin) 69 71, R Roussel (Fra) 71 69, J Lara (Esp) 71 69, W Harrold (Eng) 74 66, J Lando Casanova (Fra) 67 73, J Glennemo (Swe) 69 71, T Murray (Eng) 72 68, B Parker (Eng) 69 71, G Woolgar (Eng) 71 69, M Pavon (Fra) 70 70,

141 D Perrier (Fra) 70 71, M Simonsen (Den) 71 70, J Dantorp (Swe) 70 71, D Law (Sco) 68 73, S Tiley (Eng) 72 69, J White (Eng) 69 72, R Cameron (Sco) 68 73, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 68 73, R Goger (Aut) 67 74, T Tree (Eng) 70 71, M Søgaard (Den) 72 69, C Berardo (Fra) 71 70, G King (Eng) 73 68, C Gloet (Den) 73 68,

CUT

142 D Lloyd (RSA) 72 70, F Praegant (Aut) 71 71, D Antonelli (Fra) 71 71, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 71 71, E Di Nitto (Ita) 70 72, T Gornik (Slo) 71 71, C Russo (Fra) 67 75, D Løkke (Den) 70 72, M Tullo (Chi) 72 70, J Mullen (Eng) 73 69, S Gross Jr (Ger) 69 73, J Sarasti (Esp) 72 70, M Armitage (Eng) 69 73, D Huizing (Ned) 69 73,

143 M Ortolani (Ita) 74 69, S Kim (USA) 71 72, C Mivis (Bel) 68 75, R Kellett (Sco) 70 73, K Hesbois (Bel) 73 70, A Schwartz (Fra) 72 71, J Loughrey (Eng) 72 71, E Cuartero Blanco (Esp) 70 73, J Gonnet (Fra) 72 71, S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 72 71,

144 D Stewart (Sco) 73 71, G Shaw (Nir) 71 73, A Rota (Ita) 73 71, A Chesters (Eng) 73 71, P Valasek (Svk) 74 70, C Koerbler (Aut) 71 73, N Thommen (Sui) 71 73, B Paolini (USA) 70 74, S Forsstrom (Swe) 77 67, M Dobias (Sui) 69 75, J Van Der Vaart (Ned) 75 69,

145 L Tintera (Cze) 73 72, S Wolters (Ger) 73 72, D Wright (Eng) 74 71, D Gaunt (Aus) 72 73, F Daux (Fra) 70 75, O Farr (Wal) 71 74, A Rai (Eng) 73 72, R Kind (Ned) 72 73, C Selfridge (Nir) 70 75, C Costilla (Arg) 71 74,

146 A Korinek (Cze) 70 76, H Bacher (Aut) 71 75, M Wiegele (Aut) 76 70, J Hahn (USA) 76 70, G Moynihan (Irl) 74 72, S Connor (Eng) 70 76, M Keskari (Ger) 72 74, P Maddy (Eng) 73 73, A Hortal (Esp) 74 72, P Howard (Eng) 74 72,

147 A Dunbar (Nir) 71 76, R Molnar (Aut) 72 75, D Van Driel (Ned) 75 72, S Fallon (Eng) 73 74,

148 D Carey (Irl) 70 78, B Casey (Irl) 73 75, D Coupland (Eng) 72 76, K Johannessen (Nor) 75 73, J Vecchi Fossa (am) (Ita) 74 74, M Abdel Tawab (am) (Egy) 73 75,

149 S Soderberg (Swe) 76 73, J Doherty (Sco) 73 76, S Peters (Ger) 74 75,

151 S Cairns (Ger) 77 74, D Berna Manzanares (Esp) 75 76, 

152 S Einhaus (Ger) 74 78,

153 P Shields (Sco) 79 74,

155 T Gissurarson (Isl) 79 76, B Reiter (Aut) 78 77, A El Shafei (am) (Egy) 79 76,

158 J Friesz (Svk) 78 80,

173 D Michel (Ger) 88 85.