Probables vs. Possibles: We’ve selected two scarily good XVs for Ireland’s World Cup

Patrick McCarry

The dozen players that missed out show the quality Andy Farrell has available to him.

Andy Farrell and his 42-man Ireland training squad will assemble on June 19 ahead of the first full day of World Cup preparations.

A host of the Ireland squad have been taking holidays with family members and attending weddings, of friends, family and teammates, in their short window of time off. They will get together at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre and put in six weeks of hard yards before their first warm-up game, against Italy, on August 5.

Ireland are only going with three World Cup warm-ups, their least amount in 16 years, so Farrell may well use the July sessions to pit his men against each other. The Ireland head coach has done likewise in the past to sharpen his squads ahead of Test windows. He has also overseen full 15 vs. 15 sessions using Richie Murphy’s U20s. Back in March, Johnny Sexton said Ireland had beaten their younger charges at one such session, meaning they could claim the real Grand Slam.

Pondering fully loaded field sessions, in Ireland and during the warm weather training camp in Portugal, in mid August, we have looked at the 42-man squad and selected a Probables and Possibles XV that Farrell could pitch against each other during the summer.

Caelan Doris are Mack Hansen in our Probables XV while Jack Conan and Craig Casey are in our Possibles. We have Ross Byrne backing up Johnny Sexton. (Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile)

Chance to stake World Cup claim

Andy Farrell will be open to persuasion but he will certainly go into Ireland’s World Cup preparations with a good idea of what his strongest XV would look like.

As with the regular season, certain players will be managed carefully and may only start in one of the warm-ups, and feature off the bench in another. There is a fine line between going at it too hard and going in under-cooked, as Ireland did before the 2007 World Cup.

Ireland start off their group matches by facing Romania and Tonga, so Farrell may see that game against the Eastern Europeans as the last real warm-up before the brutal stuff begins. Having a good run-out between his own men in July would be beneficial, though.

We have selected two starting XVs from that 42-man Ireland squad and gone with six replacements on each bench. To us, the starting XV pretty much selects itself when every player is fit. James Ryan will hopefully be in for a concussion-free stretch over the next while and Johnny Sexton should be back in decent fettle after he underwent surgery in March.

Selecting the Possibles was a tougher undertaking, as the likes of Rob Herring, Craig Casey, Ross Byrne and the in-form Calvin Nash all still missed out on starting roles. The only bit we really had to chew over was the back row configuration as all three men can play No.8.

IRELAND PROBABLES

15. Hugo Keenan
14. Mack Hansen
13. Gary Ringrose
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. James Lowe
10. Johnny Sexton
9. Jamison Gibson-Park

1. Andrew Porter
2. Dan Sheehan
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Tadhg Beirne
5. James Ryan
6. Peter O’Mahony
7. Josh van der Flier
8. Caelan Doris

Replacements: Tom Stewart, Dave Kilcoyne, Kieran Treadwell, Craig Casey, Ross Byrne, Jamie Osborne.

Ireland players, from left, Jonathan Sexton, Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier celebrate their side’s try, scored by Dan Sheehan, against England. (Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile)

IRELAND POSSIBLES

15. Jimmy O’Brien
14. Keith Earls
13. Bundee Aki
12. Stuart McCloskey
11. Jacob Stockdale
10. Jack Crowley
9. Conor Murray

1. Cian Healy
2. Rónan Kelleher
3. Finlay Bealham
4. Ryan Baird
5. Iain Henderson
6. Jack Conan
7. Cian Prendergast
8. Gavin Coombes

Replacements: Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Joe McCarthy, Caolin Blade, Ciaran Frawley, Calvin Nash.

Let us know what your XVs would be, by reaching out to us on social media.