Announcement Of Provisional Squad

Ireland have announced their 45-man Rugby World Cup training squad, ahead of August's warm-up matches. This squad will eventually be trimmed, so not everyone mentioned underneath will eventually make the tournament short list. A notable absentee is Munster's Ian Keatley. His accurate goalkicking could not prevent his exclusion, in favour of the fly half trio of Jackson, Madigan, and Sexton. Leinster's Rhys Ruddock is also persona non grata, on account of another injury, this time incurred recently whilst playing for Emerging Ireland. One individual who comes in from the cold is Ulster's Andrew Trimble, who has seen no rugby action for many months. However, the selectors have faith in his return to fitness, no doubt influenced by Andrew's fine performances in the Six Nations Championship-winning year of 2014.

The Ireland Rugby World Cup training squad:

The BACKS

Isaac Boss

Tommy Bowe

Darren Cave

Gordon D'Arcy

Keith Earls

Luke Fitzgerald

Craig Gilroy

Robbie Henshaw

Paddy Jackson

Felix Jones

Dave Kearney

Rob Kearney

Ian Madigan

Kieran Marmion

Fergus McFadden

Conor Murray

Jared Payne

Eoin Reddan

Noel Reid

Jonny Sexton

Andrew Trimble

Simon Zebo

The FORWARDS

Rory Best

Michael Bent

Jack Conan

Sean Cronin

Tadhg Furlong

Cian Healy

Jamie Heaslip

Ian Henderson

Chris Henry

Rob Herring

Dave Kilcoyne

Jack McGrath

Martin Moore

Jordi Murphy

Sean O'Brien

Paul O'Connell

Tommy O'Donnell

Peter O'Mahony

Mike Ross

Donnacha Ryan

Richardt Strauss

Devin Toner

Dan Tuohy