Declan Kidney has called on five previously uncapped players to bolster the Irish squad ahead of the Six Nations opener with Wales on Sunday.
David Kearney, Eoin O’Malley, Peter O’Mahony, Simon Zebo, and Brett Wilkinson are the untried players summoned to the big-time by Kidney, alongside fellow Wolfhounds Denis Hurley, Dan Tuohy, Chris Henry and Rhys Ruddock, all of whom have donned the green jersey at senior level in the past.
Tuohy, Zebo and Kearney were among those to stand out despite the Wolfhounds having a howler (cough) in defeat to the England Saxons on Saturday, but the new faces will have a long way to go to oust the established players who had been named in Kidney’s original squad earlier this month.
Ireland’s Six Nations campaign kicks off against Wales on Sunday afternoon and if you want to find out how we think they’ll do, who is the WAG to watch and who’ll be the man making the hardest yards, check out our preview here.
Ireland squad (* denotes uncapped players):
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)
Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
David Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster)*
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)*
Eoin O’Malley (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht)*
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster)*
