A 33-strong Ireland squad was announced today for a two day training and preparation camp for the coming season.
While a further squad will be announced for the Guinness Series in late October following the completion of the second round of the Heineken Cup, this training squad reflects a mixture of internationals and younger players who have been gaining experience in the early part of the season.
The uncapped players in the squad are forward Dave O’Callaghan, centre Luke Marshall and former U20 international Iain Henderson, who impressed during the recent IRB Junior World Championship in South Africa during the summer.
There are a number of players named in the squad who missed the summer tour including Paul O’Connell, Stephen Ferris, Tom Court and Tommy Bowe.
In addition there are also some players who did play in June but who are sitting this camp out to either rehab current minor injuries or to finish off their pre season, such as Rob Kearney. There are also longer term absentees such as Luke Fitzgerald and Sean O’Brien but overall the squad generally contains two players per position.
Ireland Coach Declan Kidney said: “At this stage of the season it is about building foundations for the Guinness Series and it is vital to get the players together to do that. A number of them have yet to play, but it was important to include some of them from a positional sense for this camp, such as Paul (O’Connell) and Rory (Best), as well as other players who missed the summer tour.
There are a number of players who are not included due to injuries and will continue their rehab and their preseason work in their provinces, but with more playing time and a lot of high level games to come, there is certainly time for them to push for their inclusion in the Guinness series squad and selection for the games in November.”
Ireland Training Squad (33):
Rory Best (Banbridge – Ulster)
Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
Tom Court (Malone – Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster – Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon – Ulster)
Declan Fitzpatrick (Dungannon – Ulster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf – Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas – Leinster)
Iain Henderson (Queens University – Ulster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena – Ulster)
Denis Hurley (Dolphin– Munster)
Luke Marshall (Ballymena – Ulster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen – Munster)
Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers – Connacht)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere – Leinster)
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary’s College – Leinster)
David O’Callaghan (Dolphin – Munster)
Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Paul O’Connell (Young Munster – Munster)
Brian O’Driscoll (UCD – Leinster)
Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf – Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon – Munster)
Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary’s College – Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena – Ulster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena – Ulster)
Damien Varley (Garryowen – Munster)
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution – Munster)
