Ireland Training Squad Announced for Rugby World Cup Pre-Season

The Ireland coaching team have named 6 Ulster players among a 44 strong training squad for the upcoming Rugby World Cup pre-season and preparatory camps which commence in mid-June. Jack McGrath, who will join Ulster next season, has also been included. Over the course of the pre-season period the squad will hold camps in Galway and Limerick as well as their usual base in Maynooth.  Open sessions are planned for both the Sportsground in Galway and Thomond Park in Limerick.  Details of the open sessions will be announced in due course. In August, Ireland will play at the Aviva Stadium in two Guinness Summer Series fixtures firstly against Italy (August 10^th) and then Wales (September 7^th).  Tickets for these two games are available on ticketsmaster.ie. Ireland will also face off against England in Twickenham (August 24^th) and Wales at the Principality Stadium (August 31^st). Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt, commented, “The provinces have done a great job throughout the season with all four of them being involved in two sets of playoffs. There were some very close calls in selection and it’s always a challenging process because the coaching group are very conscious of how hard the players work. It’s ideal that they get a good opportunity to relax for a few weeks before getting stuck into pre-season training and  busy ‘Summer Series’ in the lead up to the World Cup. Some players have missed out through injury and there are one or two guys that may be added into the squad at a later stage.” IRELAND Training Squad Forwards (24) Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht) 9 caps Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 117 caps Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 5 caps Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 14 caps Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 68 caps Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht) 14 caps Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 33 caps Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 88 caps Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 44 caps Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 7 caps Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 29 caps Jean Kleyn (Munster) 0 caps Jack McGrath (St Marys College/Leinster) 54 caps Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster) 27 caps Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 57 caps Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 14 caps Rhys Ruddock (Lansdowne/Leinster) 21 caps James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 18 caps Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 14 caps CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 31 caps Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 64 caps Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps Backs (20) Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 17 caps Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 18 caps Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 caps Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 12 caps John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 8 caps Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 77 caps Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 5 caps Mike Haley (Munster) 0 caps Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 37 caps Dave Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster) 17 caps Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 90 caps Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 13 caps Kieran Marmion (Galwegians/Connacht) 25 caps Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 10 caps Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 72 caps Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 20 caps Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 3 caps Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 83 caps Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 19 caps Unavailable due to injury: Dan Leavy (Leinster) Sean O’Brien (Leinster) Guinness Summer Series 2019 Fixtures IRELAND v Italy Aviva Stadium, Saturday 10^th August, KO 2.00pm (Live Coverage: RTE & Channel 4) IRELAND v Wales Aviva Stadium, Saturday 7^th September, KO 2.00pm (Live Coverage: RTE & Channel 4) August 2019 International Fixtures England v IRELAND Twickenham Stadium, Saturday 24^th August, KO 3.00pm (Live Coverage: Sky) Wales v IRELAND Principality Stadium, Saturday 31^st August, KO 2.30pm (Live Coverage: Channel 4)