The suspended Johnny Sexton is the only player in the 41-man Ireland squad who has been ruled out of consideration for the opening warm-up against Italy at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 8pm).
All of the squad which reassembled on Sunday night reported for duty fully fit after a ‘down week’ when training on an individual basis, leaving Andy Farrell and with 40 players to choose from for the first of just three warm-up games.
Ireland will face England at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, August 19th, kick-off 5.30pm) before the final game against Samoa in Bayonne on August 26th completes their Rugby World Cup preparations.
The final World Cup squad of 33 players will be confirmed on Monday, August 28th. The likelihood is that one hooker, a lock, a backrower, a scrumhalf, outhalf, centre and outside back plus one more will miss the cut.
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For those competing for the final few places on the plane to France, this heightens the importance of these warm-up games for players who fall into those categories.
This is the fourth time in the last six World Cup cycles that Ireland have hosted Italy in a warm-up game, the exceptions being 2011 and 2015, when the two countries were drawn in the same pool.
The Azzurri have played their first preparatory game when pushing a shadow Scottish side to a hard-earned 25-13 win in Murrayfield last Saturday. Italian head coach Kieran Crowley, who departs after the World Cup, is likely to name a much-changed side for next Saturday’s game at the Aviva.
Ben Healy’s performance last Saturday at Murrayfield has all but cemented his place in the Scottish World Cup squad. The 24-year-old former Glenstal Abbey, Irish under-20 and Munster outhalf, who qualifies for his adopted country through his Scottish-born mother, was named man-of-the-match after kicking 10 points and setting up two of Scotland’s three tries, laying on the first of Darcy Graham’s brace with a perfectly measured crosskick.
It was his first full Test after making his international debut in Scotland’s final Six Nations game, which was also a hard-fought win over Italy at Murrayfield.
Afterwards he admitted: “It was far from perfect. We’re just happy to get across the line with a win. I have two caps – both against Italy – and they came down to the wire. They’re a niggly team to play against and we saw that again. Today is a step in the right direction. Pre-season was as tough as they come, so this was a reward.”
Scottish head coach Gregor Townsend lavished praise on Healy’s performance, stating: “I thought he was excellent. To play at ‘10′ you need to have a confident temperament, you need to be calm when things aren’t going well for you, and he showed both of those.
“His kicking was outstanding. Those spiral kicks, you could sense the crowd thinking, ‘oof, we don’t often see this’. On a couple of them, it changed us winning a penalty in the 22 and maybe getting to the halfway line to actually being in their 22.
“He delivered at the end there with two good passes that led to Ollie Smith making the break and Cam Redpath putting away Josh Bayliss [for Scotland’s third try].”
Ticket sales for Saturday’s game have passed the 40,000 mark.
Ireland’s World Cup training squad
Loosehead props: Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter
Tighthead props: Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Furlong, Tom O’Toole
Hookers: Rob Herring, Ronan Kelleher, Dan Sheehan, Tom Stewart
Secondrows: Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Kieran Treadwell, Ryan Baird
Backrows: Jack Conan, Gavin Coombes, Caelan Doris, Peter O’Mahony, Cian Prendergast, Josh van der Flier
Scrumhalves: Caolin Blade, Craig Casey, Jamison Gibson-Park, Conor Murray
Outhalves: Ross Byrne, Jack Crowley, Jonathan Sexton, Ciarán Frawley
Centres: Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, Jamie Osborne, Garry Ringrose
Outside backs: Hugo Keenan, James Lowe, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Jacob Stockdale.
