Heartbeats rising as Ireland prepare for their World Cup bid

THE starter’s flag will be raised today as the Irish Rugby Football Union gets into pre-match mode and it’s ‘noses to the tape’ with their opening preparation test against Italy scheduled for the Aviva Stadium (this Saturday, kick-off 2pm) just four days away.
After completing five tough weeks of pre-season training the Ireland squad have returned to their usual Maynooth training base. The players have gone through a gruelling two training weeks at Carton House, a week at Connacht Rugby’s base in Galway, a week in UL at Munster’s training base and week at the IRFU’s new High Performance Centre in west Dublin along with two regeneration weeks in between.
Today the camp reported that Ultan Dillane and Rory Scannell have returned to their provincial bases.
Ireland’s opening game of their two home Guinness Summer Series Test matches against Conor O’Shea’s Italy at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday will be watched with interest and for some members of the squad it may be their last chance to make sufficient impression to be included in to the final 31 for Japan.
Munster have 13 players to today’s named squad for the coming series: Tadhg Beirne, Dave Kilcoyne, Jean Kleyn, Tommy O’Donnell, Niall Scannell, Peter O’Mahony, CJ Stander, Joey Carbery (pictured), Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Mike Haley and Conor Murray.
IRELAND Guinness Summer Series Squad v Italy
Forwards (23)
Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht) 9 caps
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 117 caps
Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 5 caps
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 14 caps
Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 68 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 33 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 88 caps
Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 44 caps
Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 7 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 29 caps
Jean Kleyn (Munster) 0 caps
Jack McGrath (St Marys College/Leinster) 54 caps
Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster) 27 caps
Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 57 caps
Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 14 caps
Rhys Ruddock (Lansdowne/Leinster) 21 caps
James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 18 caps
Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 14 caps
CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 31 caps
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 64 caps
Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps
Backs (20)
Will Addison (Enniskillen/Ulster) 3 caps
Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 17 caps
Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 18 caps
Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 caps
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 12 caps
John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 8 caps
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 77 caps
Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 5 caps
Mike Haley (Munster) 0 caps
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 37 caps
Dave Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster) 17 caps
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 90 caps
Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 13 caps
Kieran Marmion (Galwegians/Connacht) 25 caps
Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 10 caps
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 72 caps
Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 20 caps
Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 83 caps
Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 19 caps
Here are the Guinness Summer Series 2019/Pre-World Cup Fixtures:
IRELAND v Italy
Aviva Stadium, Saturday 10th August, KO 2.00pm
(Live Coverage: RTE & Channel 4)
IRELAND v Wales
Aviva Stadium, Saturday 7th September, KO 2.00pm
(Live Coverage: RTE & Channel 4)
England v IRELAND
Twickenham Stadium, Saturday 24th August, KO 3.00pm
(Live Coverage: Sky)
Wales v IRELAND
Principality Stadium, Saturday 31st August, KO 2.30pm
(Live Coverage: Channel 4).

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