Ireland have named a 36-man squad and there are some exciting additions.
Joe Schmidt has named a big pool of players for the final two rounds of the 2017 Six Nations Championship.
Joey Carbery, Tiernan O’Halloran and Jared Payne are all included and there will be serious competition in the Irish midfield and for the 15 jersey.
O’Halloran has been in electric form for Connacht this season, and last, while Carbery and Payne are back for Leinster and Ulster after spells on the sideline. The fullback position is one that will be hotly contested ahead of the coming matches.
Former Connacht and Ireland flanker Johnny O’Connor described O’Halloran as ‘the form fullback in the country’ during a lively debate on The Hard Yards rugby podcast [from 27 minutes in the link below].
https://soundcloud.com/thehardyardssportsjoe/irelands-win-over-france-a-connacht-bromance-and-why-conor-murray-is-so-good-episode-4
Once again, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan and Quinn Roux are included in a forwards unit that includes captain Rory Best, Jamie Heaslip, CJ Stander and Sean O’Brien.
IRELAND SQUAD
Forwards (19)
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (c) 102 caps
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 1 cap
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 14 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 65 caps
Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster) (vc) 94 caps
Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 30 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 17 caps
Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Jack McGrath (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) 39 caps
Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster) 47 caps
Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 38 caps
Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 1 cap
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster) 45 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 4 cap
Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 2 cap
CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 13 caps
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 45 caps
James Tracy (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps
Backs (17)
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Leinster) 3 caps
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) *
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 57 caps
Craig Gilroy (Bangor/Ulster) 10 caps
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 27 caps
Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster) 22 caps
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 75 caps
Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht) 11 caps
Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster) 9 caps
Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 56 caps
Tiernan O’Halloran (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 caps
Jared Payne (Ulster) 19 caps
Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 6 caps
Jonathan Sexton (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 64 caps
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 70 caps
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) 31 caps
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