Ireland are set to name their extended squad for November’s Guinness Series at the end of the week.
In recent years, Ireland have called up 34, 37 and 33 players for the November internationals. There are invariably call-ups during the course of the month too.
While the November 2016 slate of games had more razzmatazz – New Zealand [twice], Canada and Australia – this year’s Test matches should be enthralling encounters. Given our current mind-set and Ireland’s rankings [fourth in the world], fans will be expecting a clean sweep against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.
Joe Schmidt has stacked decks to choose from when it comes to forwards, scrum-halves and wingers. The interesting calls will be at out-half, midfield and fullback.
Joey Carbery may find himself covering 10 and 15 from the bench, against South Africa at least, but Schmidt may call on Ian Keatley as a safe pair of hands to play deputy to Johnny Sexton and allow Carbery to concentrate on his fullback duties.
Keatley had a fine game against Racing 92 at the weekend and was last capped against Italy in this year’s Six Nations. With Fiji providing the meat in the November Tests sandwich, Schmidt may call up Leinster’s Ross Byrne to give him a taste of Ireland camp and the chance of a Test debut.
Schmidt’s other outhalf options are JJ Hanrahan [Munster], Jack Carty [Connacht] and Ian Madigan [Bristol] as Tyler Bleyendaal is not Irish qualified until 2018.
In midfield, it looks as though Rory Scannell, Bundee Aki and Stuart McCloskey will be competing for a starting slot alongside Robbie Henshaw. Luke Marshall should be a certainty for the squad and don’t be surprised if Schmidt reunites the Ulsterman with Henshaw after their sterling efforts in the 2016 Cape Town win over the Springboks.
That leaves fullback and, along with second row Ultan Dillane, this should be Connacht’s second squad inclusion. Tiernan O’Halloran has been consistently good for his province and has shown a real attacking spark in his extended outings with Ireland over the past 12 months.
As for the five young prospects, Kieran Treadwell and Jacob Stockdale of Ulster should retain their places after impressing for the province and on the summer tour. Byrne may be joined by Leinster tighthead Andrew Porter and second row James Ryan. Schmidt also has the option of calling up in-form Scarlets lock Tadhg Beirne.
Schmidt is adding depth and experience to his squad with the 2019 World Cup already in focus.
PREDICTED IRELAND SQUAD [38 players]
Front row: Jack McGrath, Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Rory Best, James Tracy, Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, John Ryan, Andrew Porter
Second row: Iain Henderson, Devin Toner, Ultan Dillane, Kieran Treadwell, James Ryan
Back row: Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, Sean O’Brien, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan, CJ Stander
Scrum-halves: Conor Murray, Kieran Marmion, Luke McGrath
Out-halves: Johnny Sexton, Ian Keatley, Ross Byrne
Wingers: Simon Zebo, Keith Earls, Jacob Stockdale, Andrew Conway, Andrew Trimble
Midfield: Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey, Rory Scannell
Fullback: Joey Carbery, Tiernan O’Halloran
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