Six new faces in refreshed Ireland squad to face France

This squad will be cut down to 23 for Sunday's game against Les Bleus.

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has named a 37-man squad for the fourth round of the 2019 Guinness Six Nations. Tadhg Beirne, Rob Herring, CJ Stander, Garry Ringrose, Ross Byrne and Kieran Marmion are all included in a wider training squad, with Schmidt due to named his starting CV and replacements on Friday afternoon. The inclusion of so many senior stars is due to the amount of senior stars carrying knocks and the fact that there are no Guinness PRO14 fixtures slated for this weekend. Herring comes into the squad off the back of a hat-trick on Ulster duty, against Dragons, last weekend while Marmion scored two tries in Connacht's win over Ospreys. Both of those men could feature in the matchday squad while Ringrose and Beirne will be pressing for starting roles.

Forwards (21)

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 115 caps (c) Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 4 caps Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 12 caps Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht) 13 caps Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 31 caps Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 86 caps Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 43 caps Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 7 caps Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 27 caps Jack McGrath (St Marys College/Leinster) 54 caps Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster) 27 caps Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster) 55 caps Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 55 caps (vc) Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 13 caps Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 11 caps Rhys Ruddock (Lansdowne/Leinster) 21 caps James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 15 caps John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 17 caps Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 12 caps CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 29 caps Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 16 caps

Backs (16)

Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 15 caps Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 18 caps Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 1 cap Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 11 caps John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 7 caps Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 75 caps Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 5 caps Tom Farrell (Coolmine/Connacht) 0 caps Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 89 caps Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 11 caps Kieran Marmion (Galwegians/Connacht) 24 caps Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 70 caps Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 18 caps Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 81 caps (vc) Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 17 caps

Ireland currently lie third in the table, one point back from England and a further three behind in-form Wales. The match kicks off at 3pm on Sunday and will be live on Virgin Media One. CHECK OUT OUR IRELAND vs. FRANCE PREVIEW HERE: