The Ireland Coaching Group have named a 40 man squad for the opening two rounds of the 2017 RBS 6 Nations Championship.There are 13 players from Munster in the initial squad, with Rassie Erasmus’ men rewarded for their second seeding in the Champions Cup, as well as sitting atop the Pro12 table.
Ireland travel to both Edinburgh and Rome over the course of the first two rounds of this year’s Championship facing the Scots in Murrayfield on Saturday 4th February before flying to Rome to take on Conor O’Shea’s Italian side on Saturday 11th February.
Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt commented, “It has been good to watch the players over the past two months and great to see many of them doing so well.
As always there were some difficult decisions but we feel that the group is a good mix with a number of key players having good experience and a number of newer players having gained valuable experience and confidence during the summer tour to South Africa and the recent autumn series.”
Details of Ireland open training sessions during the 6 Nations will be announced in due course.
IRELAND 2017 RBS 6 Nations Squad Round 1 & 2
Player/Club/Province/Caps
Forwards (22)
Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht) 6 caps
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (c) 100 caps
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 1 cap
Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht) 8 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 11 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 62 caps
Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster) (vc) 91 caps
Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 28 caps
Billy Holland (Cork Constitution/Munster) 1 cap
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 17 caps
Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Jack McGrath (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) 36 caps
Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster) 44 caps
Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Con/Munster) 37 caps
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster) 43 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 1 cap
Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) *
CJ Stander (Munster) 10 caps
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 42 caps
James Tracy (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 5 caps
Backs (18)
Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 67 caps
Andrew Conway (Munster) *
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 54 caps
Craig Gilroy (Bangor/Ulster) 9 caps
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 24 caps
Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster) 19 caps
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 72 caps
Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht) 9 caps
Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster) 9 caps
Stuart McCloskey (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 1 cap
Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 53 caps
Tiernan O’Halloran (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 caps
Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 3 caps
Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) *
Jonathan Sexton (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 63 caps
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 69 caps
Simon Zebo (Cork Con/Munster) 28 caps
*Denotes uncapped player
