In the end, Joe Schmidt went with a specialist centre as opposed to the versatile Will Addison.
Six days ahead of schedule, the IRFU has announced their Ireland squad for the World Cup.
Spurred, no doubt, by media reports of squad selections and omissions, the IRFU opted to release their 31-man squad at lunchtime.
As was widely reported,
earlier in the day, Devin Toner, Jordi Murphy and Kieran Marmion are all the big casualties. The big calls were discussed by Barry Murphy, Andrew Trimble and Jerry Flannery on the latest episode of
Baz & Andrew's House of Rugby.
The other big decision revolved around the backline, with Chris Farrell and Jordan Larmour getting the nod and the likes of Will Addison and Dave Kearney missing out.
Here is the Ireland squad in full.
OFFICIAL IRELAND SQUAD
PROPS (5)
Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Tadhg Furlong, Andrew Porter, John Ryan
HOOKERS (3)
Rory Best, Niall Scannell, Sean Cronin
LOCKS (4)
James Ryan, Iain Henderson, Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne
BACK ROW (5)
Peter O'Mahony, Josh van der Flier, CJ Stander, Rhys Ruddock, Jack Conan
SCRUM-HALVES (2)
Conor Murray, Luke McGrath
OUT-HALVES (3)
Johnny Sexton, Jack Carty, Joey Carbery
MIDFIELD (4)
Robbie Henshaw, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, Chris Farrell
BACK THREE (5)
Keith Earls, Jacob Stockdale, Rob Kearney, Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway
The latest episodes sees Barry Murphy, Andrew Trimble and Jerry Flannery discuss Ireland's World Cup squad selection and look ahead to their final warm-up game against Wales.
