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Andy Farrell confirms his 33-man Ireland squad for Rugby World Cup
By Liam Heagney
Andy Farrell has confirmed his Ireland squad for the Rugby World Cup, cutting the 38 players that were still in contention down to the requisite 33 for a finals campaign that begins on September 9 in Nantes versus Romania.
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There were injury concerns overnight regarding the availability of veteran loosehead Cian Healy after he was helped from the pitch in Bayonne by medics having suffered a calf injury during the underwhelming 17-13 Summer Nations Series success over Samoa.
They also had lingering concerns over hooker Dan Sheehan who limped out of the August 19 win over England. In the end, Healy has been ruled out but Sheehan has been included as one of the 18 travelling forwards.
Along with the unfortunate loosehead Healy, Cian Prendergast and Tom Stewart were the other pack members to be omitted. In the backs, Ciaran Frawley and Jacob Stockdale were the duo to miss out in that 15-strong department.
The squad announcement, which was made in Dublin on Sunday afternoon, concluded the selection process that began on May 30 when Farell named a 42-strong squad for pre-season training.
It was August 16, ahead of the warm-up victory over England, when the first cut was made, the head coach excluding forwards Gavin Coombes and Kieran Treadwell along with backline trio Caolin Blade, Calvin Nash and Jamie Osborne.
Jeremy Loughman was added to the squad at that time, and he went on to play off the bench against the English and the Samoans and is now heading to France.
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After taking on Romania in their World Cup opener, the world No1-ranked Ireland face Tonga, South Africa and Scotland in further pool matches.
Ireland Rugby World Cup squad
Forwards (18):
Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University)(13)
Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers)(32)
Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne)(41)
Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere)(39)
Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(31)
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf)(67)
Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy)(74)
Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch)(37)
Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne)(21)
David Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians)(52)
Jeremy Loughman (Munster/Garryowen)(3)
Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University)(3)
Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution)(96)
Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch)(11)
Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD)(54)
James Ryan (Leinster/UCD)(55)
Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne)(18)
Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD)(52)
Backs (15):
Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians)(47)
Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD)(21)
Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon)(12)
Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution)(6)
Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster)(100)
Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)(26)
Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians)(16)
Robbie Henshaw (Leinster/Buccaneers)(64)
Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD)(31)
James Lowe (Leinster)(21)
Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor)(13)
Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen)(106)
Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas)(6)
Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD)(51)
Jonathan Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(captain)(113)
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