IRELAND ANNOUNCE PRE-SEASON TRAINING SQUAD

No big surprises here let me tell you.... The only real disappointment from this announcement is the exclusion of 3 players... Ian Humphreys, Shane Horgan and Nevin Spence. Why is that I hear you ask? Well, they all just recently had surgery on long standing injuries... Tough brake! In saying that though, it does not rule them out of contention for the World Cup. It only deems them unavailable for the conditioning schedule due to their rehabilitation periods, yada yada yada... It also means they won't take part in any of the games during the Guinness Summer Series in August.

For those of you who think it won't affect them much, think again. These 3 players are fringe players at best. If they had aspirations of playing in the World Cup (which I'm sure they do) they'll know just how detrimental their absence will be for the start of camp. If they are to feature in the World Cup, they will need all the time they can get to impress the coaches.

In my opinion, unless injuries should come into play, none of these 3 players will be playing much rugby in the World Cup but I do like the look of young Spence. He has had a very strong season for Ulster and seems to have established himself as "one for the future" playing at 13 but he is still not at international standard just like his fellow Ulster man Humphreys. While we are on the note of missing players, where is Craig Gilroy? Surely he played his way into Kidneys head this year too. My only thought is that he isn't named in this pre-season squad because he is playing in the Junior World Cup.

I am however, delighted to see the inclusion of Conor Murray and Felix Jones who have had great seasons. Murray has been a revelation at 9 for Munster and I hope Kidney is prepared to give him a good chance while Jones has shown the damage he can do attacking from full-back provided he stays injury free. I hope come September it is he who is wearing the 15 shirt, not Roberta Kearney.

IRELAND RUGBY WORLD CUP PRE-SEASON SQUAD

Backs (19):

Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht)
Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Felix Jones (Shannon/Munster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Geordan Murphy (Leicester)
Conor Murray (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

Forwards (24):

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tony Buckley (Sale Sharks)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Leinster)
Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Damien Varley (Garryown/Munster)
David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht)

Not considered due to injury:

Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster) – Knee
Ian Humphries (Ballymena/Ulster) – Shoulder
Nevin Spence (Ballynahinch/Ulster) – shoulder