A slew of fringe players have been afforded the opportunity to force their way into Eddie O'Sullivan's plans ahead of the World Cup as the squad for the tour of Argentina was announced this afternoon.
League convert Brian Carney is among seven uncapped members in the travelling party to face the Pumas in the two-test series which gets underway in Santa Fe at the end of the month.
Carney, who has bedded in quickly following his move to Munster, is joined in the squad by provincial teammates Tomas O'Leary, Barry Murphy and Tony Buckley.
"Brian has done well for Munster since his arrival and has earned a call into the squad," said O'Sullivan today. "He has moved across from rugby league without too much disruption to his game and I thought this was a good time to move him onto the next level and see how he performs."
Leinster's Robert Kearney is named in the back division while the English-based duo of Peter Bracken and Shane Jennings, who will face each other in the Heineken Cup final before joining up with the rest of the squad, are also included. Wasps out-half Jeremy Staunton will travel should he overcome the hand injury he is currently carrying.
O'Sullivan has made no secret in recent weeks of his intention to give many of his frontliners a break and, as expected, none of the starting XV who took to the field against England in the Six Nations are involved.
"It is an opportunity for players to put their cases forward for France and in doing so allowed us to rest the majority of the Six Nations squad," he explained. "Argentina is always a tough place to tour and this will be no different.
"It gives us the chance to look at players in a pressurised test match environment and as well as some experienced players, there are also some new prospects there who will benefit from the experience."
Elsewhere, Connacht today confirmed they will take on the might of the Springboks this summer in a pre-World Cup match. Jake White will take his side to the Sportsground on August 21st ahead of the finals in France.
For Connacht, this will be the first time they will host a visiting international side since they beat Fifi on November 14th, 1995 by 27-5.
Connacht Rugby CEO, Gerry Kelly, said that the visit of the former World Cup winners will be a huge boost for rugby in the province.
"It will be a great sporting occasion and a great way for us to kick-off the new season," he said. "We are putting together a very strong squad for next season and it will be their first outing, so it promises to be a great event."
Details of the tickets for what will be a sell-out fixture will be announced shortly on www.connachtrugby.ie.
Ireland squad: Neil Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster), Simon Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster), Peter Bracken (Wasps), Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster), Leo Cullen (Leicester), Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster), Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster), Keith Gleeson (St.Mary's College/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster), Trevor Hogan (Shannon/Leinster), Bernard Jackman (Clontarf/Leinster), Shane Jennings (Leicester), Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster), Malcolm O'Kelly (St.Mary's College/Leinster), Alan Quinlan (Shannon/Munster), Frankie Sheahan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Bryan Young (Ballymena/Ulster); Isaac Boss (Ballymena/Ulster), Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Munster), Brian Carney (Clonakilty/Munster), Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht), Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster), Kieran Lewis (St.Mary's College/Leinster), Barry Murphy (U.L. Bohemians/Munster), Geordan Murphy (Leicester), Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster), Eoin Reddan (Wasps), Jeremy Staunton (Wasps), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
