With a full slate of Guinness PRO12 action coming up this weekend, Joe Schmidt is allowing some of his Ireland squad back to their province’s for game-time.
Schmidt will take 18 players to Monaghan for a three-day training camp, starting from Wednesday, with Rory Best, Andrew Trimble and Johnny Sexton expected to be involved.
Peter O’Mahony will not play for Munster but he may report for Ireland duty to help in his hamstring rehab. Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus told reporters:
“Peter won’t feature this week for us. He’s still a week away. I think he might be ready next week but it would be stupid now to push that this week.”
With that, 16 players have been excused from national team duty so that they can get in some game-time. Schmidt will draft in academy players for his senior players to run lines against during their time in Monaghan.
Here are the players that have been released for national team duty:
Munster: John Ryan, Ian Keatley and Billy Holland, Rory Scannell and Andrew Conway
Leinster: James Tracy and Josh van der Flier
Ulster: Craig Gilroy, Luke Marshall, Stuart McCloskey and Tommy Bowe
Connacht: Finlay Bealham, Ultan Dillane, Kieran Marmion and Tiernan O’Halloran
