Three additions to wider Ireland squad as Munster’s Tom Ahern drops out

A real shame for the in-form Munster lock.

Three additional players have been brought into the wider Ireland and Ireland A squad, ahead of this weekend's games against an All Blacks XV and South Africa. Andy Farrell and his coaches are now working with the 49 players at the IRFU High Performance Centre, ahead of the games on Friday and Saturday respectively, at The RDS and Aviva Stadium. The initial 37-man squad for the Bank of Ireland Autumn Nations Series is unchanged, with a dozen new faces arriving to the camp on Sunday evening and at the HPC for training, this week. Nathan Doak and Tom Stewart, who both started Ulster's weekend win over Munster, have been called up and will both surely feature in the squad to face the All Blacks XV on Friday evening [7:45pm kick-off]. An IRFU update has confirmed Tom Ahern will miss out on all the fun. It reads, in part:

Unfortunately, Tom Ahern has been ruled out of involvement in this week's Ireland 'A' fixture but Diarmuid Barron, Caolin Blade, Jack Crowley, Shane Daly, Max Deegan, James Hume, Dave Kilcoyne, Marty Moore and Scott Penny all came through the weekend's URC action without issue to join the squad. Jamie Osborne and Roman Salanoa have both been declared fit after completing the return to play protocols while Connacht lock Gavin Thornbury has been called up in place of Ahern. Nathan Doak and Tom Stewart, who both featured in the Emerging Ireland side in Bloemfontein, will also join the squad later in the week.

[caption id="attachment_247508" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Nathan Doak of Ulster makes a break during a Champions Cup match against Northampton. (Photo by Paul Harding/Sportsfile)[/caption]

Possible Ireland 'A' side for All Blacks XV

Ireland 'A' take on a strong All Blacks XV squad featuring Damian McKenzie, TJ Perenara, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Patrick Tuipulotu, on Friday night. The starting XV will most likely feature the core of that dozen additional squad players, and those that will be in line to face Fiji at Aviva Stadium on November 12. To us, it may look something like this:

PREDICTED IRELAND 'A' TEAM

15. Michael Lowry (Ulster) 14. Calvin Nash (Munster) 13. James Hume (Ulster) 12. Stuart McCloskey (Ulster) 11. Jimmy O'Brien (Leinster) 10. Ciarán Frawley (Leinster) 9. Craig Casey (Munster) 1. Jeremy Loughman (Munster) 2. Diarmuid Barron (Munster) 3. Tom O'Toole (Ulster) 4. Gavin Thornbury (Connacht) 5. Joe McCarthy (Leinster) 6. Cian Prendergast (Connacht) 7. Nick Timoney (Ulster) 8. Max Deegan (Leinster)

Replacements: Dave Heffernan (Connacht), Dave Kilcoyne (Munster), Marty Moore (Ulster), Ryan Baird (Leinster), Scott Penny (Leinster), Caolin Blade (Connacht), Jack Crowley (Munster), Shane Daly (Munster)

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