Ireland squad: Andy Farrell's bold calls as 42-man training group named

These are the men that will be gunning for the final 33-man squad, later this year.

Andy Farrell has announced his 42-man Ireland squad that will meet and train together for the 2023 World Cup. There had been speculation that it could be 45 players in the first cut, but Farrell has a clear plan in place and is backing the slightly smaller batch of players to get the job done in France. There are four uncapped players included - Tom Stewart, Calvin Nash, Ciaran Frawley and Jamie Osborne - while Johnny Sexton is in, despite his 2022/23 season being ended by a groin injury and subsequent surgery. Sexton, Jack Crowley and Ross Byrne are the three out-halves selected. [caption id="attachment_280909" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

Ireland players, from left, captain Jonathan Sexton, Peter O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne and Tadhg Furlong. (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)[/caption]

IRFU confirm full 42-man training squad

The Ireland squad called in to train for the 2023 World Cup was confirmed by the IRFU, this afternoon, and it is:

IRELAND TRAINING SQUAD

Forwards (22) Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) Gavin Coombes (Munster/Young Munster) Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University) Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) Cian Prendergast (Connacht/Corinthians) James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) Tom Stewart (Ulster/Ballynahinch)* Kieran Treadwell (Ulster/Ballymena) Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) Backs (20) Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) Caolin Blade (Connacht/Galwegians) Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD) Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster) Ciaran Frawley (Leinster/UCD)* Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster) Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians) Robbie Henshaw (Leinster/Buccaneers) Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) James Lowe (Leinster) Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) Calvin Nash (Munster/Young Munster)* Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas) Jamie Osborne (Leinster/Naas)* Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) Jonathan Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College) Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) [caption id="attachment_285037" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

James Lowe celebrates with Jamison Gibson Park, left, and Josh van der Flier after scoring for Ireland against Scotland. (Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile)[/caption]

Ireland squad will have three warm-up games

Ahead of the World Cup, the Ireland squad will play three Test matches, with two of them taking place at Dublin's Aviva Stadium. They open up the 2023/24 season by hosting Italy on August 5, before welcoming England to Lansdowne Road a fortnight later. Tickets for both home World Cup warm-up fixtures are now on sale. One week after that, they will take on Samoa over in Bayonne. While no firm date has been locked in for the announcement of Ireland's 33-man World Cup squad, it is likely that we will know the lucky men before that game against Samoa, in France. Two weeks after that Samoa game, Ireland open their 2023 World Cup campaign against Romania, in Bordeaux.