Declan Kidney has left Eoin Reddan out of the 27-man squad to face France in the Six Nations opener and opted instead for the Munster duo of Tomás O’Leary and Peter Stringer at scrumhalf. The Ireland manager has also preferred lock Mick O’Driscoll to Ryan Caldwell and London Irish captain Bob Casey.

Ulster prop Tom Court is the only uncapped player in a squad that contains 14 forwards and 13 backs.

There are few surprises otherwise, with Munster dominating the forward selection and Leinster well represented in the backs, most notably by centre Gordon D'Arcy whose return from a complicated broken arm to this level has been one of the success stories of the year.

Tommy Bowe and Geordan Murphy are the only English-based players included, while Ulster’s Paddy Wallace offers cover for outhalf Ronan O’Gara ahead of the Croke Park game on Saturday, February 7th.

Reddan, who is named in the ‘A’ squad to face England Saxons in Donnybrook on Friday, February 6th, has featured 17 times for Wasps this season and has 14 caps for Ireland.

He played in every game in last year’s Six Nations and in two of the autumn internationals, but the form of O’Leary for Munster this year has seen him catapulted into the driving seat for the starting XV.

Stringer, hugely experienced at international level, has been back up to O’Leary but has been involved in 14 competitive games this season.

Mick O’Driscoll on the other hand has not enjoyed the game time with Munster that he has in previous season and his inclusion ahead of Casey, whose side lead the Guinness Premiership is a blow to the former Blackrock man.

Another option at lock comes in the shape of Ireland’s most-capped player Malcolm O’Kelly, but he and O’Driscoll are vying for the one place behind Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan.

There are five - Stephen Ferris, Jamie Heaslip, Denis Leamy, Alan Quinlan, David Wallace – specialist backrowers in the squad, with Ulster’s Ferris reaping the rewards of some excellent performances in the autumn and for his province since.

Shane Jennings, however, will be disappointed to have only made the ‘A’ squad, along with Sean O’Brien.

Rory Best and Jerry Flannery will compete for the hooker berth, with Bernard Jackman primed to face the Saxons

Casey and Caldwell join him and Reddan in that squad, where the Wasps man will have competition from Ulster scrumhalf Isaac Boss.

Though he will have competition from Leinster's Jonathan Sexton, Boss’s provincial team-mate Ian Humphreys is likely to get a chance to enhance his reputation at outhalf, while Darren Cave will also look to keep an encouraging season on an upward curve.

Connacht are represented in the ‘A’ squad by Gavin Duffy, Keith Matthews, Sean Cronin and John Muldoon.

Ireland Squad V France

Backs

Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)

Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College - Leinster)

Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne - Leinster)

Keith Earls (Young Munster - Munster)

Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College - Leinster)

Shane Horgan (Boyne - Leinster)

Robert Kearney (UCD - Leinster)

Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

Brian O'Driscoll (UCD - Leinster)

Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution - Munster)

Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin - Munster)

Peter Stringer (Shannon - Munster)

Paddy Wallace (Ballymena - Ulster)

ForwardsRory Best (Banbridge - Ulster)

Tom Court (Malone - Ulster)*

Stephen Ferris (Dungannon - Ulster)

Jerry Flannery (Shannon - Munster)

John Hayes (Bruff- Munster)

Jamie Heaslip (Naas - Leinster)

Marcus Horan (Shannon - Munster)

Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution - Munster)

Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution - Munster)

Paul O'Connell (Young Munster - Munster)

Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution - Munster)

Malcolm O’Kelly (St.Mary’s College - Leinster)

Alan Quinlan (Shannon - Munster)

David Wallace (Garryowen - Munster)

A Squad v England Saxons

Backs

Isaac Boss (Ballymena - Ulster)

Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins - Ulster)*

Ian Dowling (Shannon - Munster)*

Gavin Duffy (Galwegians - Connacht)

Ian Humphreys (Ballymena - Ulster)

Keith Matthews (Buccaneers - Connacht)

Eoin Reddan (Wasps)

Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College - Leinster)*

Andrew Trimble (Ballymena - Ulster)

Forwards

John Andress (Exeter)

Neil Best (Northampton)

Ryan Caldwell (Dungannon - Ulster)*

Bob Casey (London Irish)

Sean Cronin (Buccaneers -Connacht)

Cian Healy (Clontarf - Leinster)*

Bernard Jackman (Clontarf - Leinster)

Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College - Leinster)

John Muldoon (Galwegians - Connacht)

Mike Ross (Harlequins)*

Donnacha Ryan (Shannon - Munster)

Sean O’Brien (Clontarf - Leinster)