Andy Farrell names 37-man Ireland squad ahead of crucial Scotland encounter

Grand Slam in sight...

Andy Farrell has named a 37 Ireland squad ahead of this weekend's crucial Guinness Six Nations clash with Scotland, in Edinburgh. There are two new additions to the squad, for this Six Nations campaign, while two Leinster stars drop out of the rotation after picking up injuries in United Rugby Championship action. A release from the IRFU reads:

'Gavin Coombes, Jack Crowley, Rob Herring, Jordan Larmour, Cian Prendergast, Roman Salanoa, Jacob Stockdale and Kieran Treadwell return having featured for their provinces in the URC at the weekend. 'Nick Timoney and Ciaran Frawley are included in the squad for the first time during this Championship campaign. Timoney started the game against Fiji in November while Frawley picked up an injury playing for Ireland A against the All Blacks XV on the eve of the Autumn Nations Series. Jamie Osborne and Scott Penny, who trained with the squad ahead of Round 3, are unavailable having picked up minor knocks playing for Leinster against Edinburgh at the weekend.'

Ireland Squad for Scotland

Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 44 caps Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 9 caps Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD) 17 caps Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) 10 caps Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 36 caps Gavin Coombes (Munster/Young Munster) 2 caps Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) 3 caps Ciaran Frawley (Leinster/UCD) * Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) 63 caps Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 26 caps Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 23 caps Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians) 12 caps Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) 121 caps Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 71 caps Robbie Henshaw (Leinster/Buccaneers) 61 caps Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 33 caps Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 28 caps Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 20 caps Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 51 caps Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Marys College) 30 caps James Lowe (Leinster) 18 caps Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) 12 caps Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 103 caps Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas) 4 caps Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 92 caps Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 7 caps Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 51 caps Cian Prendergast (Connacht/Corinthians) 1 cap Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 49 caps James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 51 caps Roman Salanoa (Munster/Shannon) * Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 111 caps (c) Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) 15 caps Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) 35 caps Nick Timoney (Ulster/Banbridge) 3 caps Kieran Treadwell (Ulster/Ballymena) 10 caps Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps

That Ireland squad will now prepare for this Sunday's game at the IRFU High Performance Centre.  The men in green are undefeated in the competition so far, having claimed maximum points in their opening three games against Wales, France and Italy. Scotland, meanwhile, suffered their first loss of the championship against France in Round 3, but will fancy an upset on Sunday.

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