Six new faces in refreshed Ireland squad to face France

Patrick McCarry

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