Joe Schmidt has named a 34-man squad to prepare for the All Blacks test in Chicago, and presumably the other Autumn Internationals fixtures.
There are six uncapped players in the squad – Joey Carbery, Luke McGrath, Garry Ringrose and James Tracy from Leinster, with Billy Holland and John Ryan from Munster.
Ireland face the All Blacks twice, as well as Canada and Australia this Autumn.
Ireland squad:
Finlay Bealham (Connacht)
Rory Best (Ulster, capt)
Joey Carbery (Leinster)
Sean Cronin (Leinster)
Ultan Dillane (Connacht)
Keith Earls (Munster)
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster)
Craig Gilroy (Ulster)
Cian Healy (Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Leinster, vice captain)
Iain Henderson (Ulster)
Robbie Henshaw (Leinster)
Billy Holland (Munster)
Paddy Jackson (Ulster)
Rob Kearney (Leinster)
Kieran Marmion (Connacht)
Luke Marshall (Ulster)
Jack McGrath (Leinster)
Luke McGrath (Leinster)
Jordi Murphy (Leinster)
Conor Murray (Munster)
Sean O’Brien (Leinster)
Peter O’Mahony (Munster)
Jared Payne (Ulster)
Garry Ringrose (Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Munster)
John Ryan (Munster)
Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)
CJ Stander (Munster)
Devin Toner (Leinster)
James Tracy (Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ulster)
Josh van der Flier (Leinster)
Simon Zebo (Munster)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
Interesting to see some of the new faces in there given who isn’t included:
James Tracy keeping out Strauss and Herring
John Ryan keeping out J.Cronin
Billy Holland over Quinn Roux, Dan Touhy and Mick McCarthy
Joey Carbery over Madigan and
Gary Ringrose over McCloskey and Olding
I don’t follow Irish rugby enough to know if they are injured or dropped but some big calls there
Sorry supposed to say Madigan and Keatley but I was trying to remember who else was available at 10
and Ryan is a righty tighty so it is Ross, Moore and White who make way not Cronin
White retired due to confusion, Moore is playing abroad and Ross has just been excluded.
Definitely the unluckiest player is Tiernan O’Halloran, considering how much better than Kearney he’s been playing.
Carbery and Ringrose aren’t that surprising to me, and I wouldn’t even be surprised see Ringrose start considering how well he’s linking with Henshaw at club level.
Keatley and Carty might feel hard done by, but not Madigan, I think Schmidt is trying to pick as many provincial players as he can, and I think Madigan knew that when he made the call.
Ross isn’t a shock, he’s not really even first choice for Leinster any more.
Slightly surprising is the ommission of O’Donnell (Munster) and several of the Connacht players, such as Adeolokun behind Earls (who I’ve personally never rated).
I knew Ringrose had been making a name for himself and was likely to feature sooner or later and Madigan had buggered off to France but it was the Forwards who surprised me most
The one that really surprises me is Darren Sweetnam. Been superb of Munster this season plus not only showed good attack but showed he is a very reliable defend.
People need to remember, this is just the squad for the NZ game in Chicago, there will likely be new faces added for the match against Canada and if someone impresses in that game they might force there way into contention for the Australia game at the end ( Schmidt isn’t going to throw someone untested against top opposition into a match vs NZ! He will likely just rest key players during the Canada game with the second test vs NZ in mind.)
At 34 players it’s a big ol squad. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was for the whole AI’s
It worked