Rugby:Munster winger Simon Zebo has been awarded for a brilliant breakthrough season for the province with a place in the Ireland squad for the summer tour to New Zealand.
Declan Kidney has named 25 players, with four spaces left to be filled, three amongst the forwards and one in the backs.
Ulster prop Declan Fitzgerald and Munster hooker Mike Sherry are the other two uncapped players in the squad, which will be captained by Brian O’Driscoll after he missed the Six Nations campaign.
There are a number of spaces left vacant with a further prop, secondrow, backrow and scrumhalf to be added before the squad departs for New Zealand.
Paul O’Connell will fill the secondrow position if he can recover from a knee injury, while Ulster’s Chris Henry is likely to be the backrow added. Isaac Boss is in line to fill the scrumhalf position, with the Connacht loosehead Brett Wilkinson likely to be named as back-up to Cian Healy.
Seven of the players named in the squad to play the Barbarians in Gloucester next week have not been named.
The Ulster trio of Craig Gilroy, Nevin Spence and Paul Marshall miss out amongst the backs, although the latter will come in to the reckoning if Boss fails to recover from a quad muscle injury
In the forwards, Ulster’s Tom Court has not been named in the initial squad along with Henry, while the Connacht duo of Loughney and backrow John Muldoon are not in the 25 named today.
Kidney was not able to call on the services of his Leinster contingent for the non-cap fixture as the province meet the Ospreys in the RaboDirect Pro12 final on Sunday at the RDS.
Ulster centre Darren Cave will be hoping to add to the two caps he picked up in the North American tour in 2009.
Ireland will first face the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland on June 9th, with Rugby League Park in Christchurch and Hamilton’s Waikato Stadium the other venues on June 16th and June 23rd respectively.
Ireland Squad (New Zealand Tour 2012, June 9th, 16th and 23rd):
Forwards (16):
Mike Ross (Leinster)
Cian Healy (Leinster)
Declan Fitzpatrick (Ulster)*
AN Other (prop)
Rory Best (Ulster)
Seán Cronin (Leinster)
Mike Sherry (Munster)*
Donncha O'Callaghan (Munster)
Dan Tuohy (Ulster)
AN Other (secondrow)
Donnacha Ryan (Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Ulster)
Seán O'Brien (Leinster)
Peter O'Mahony (Munster)
Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)
AN Other (backrow)
Backs (13):
Rob Kearney (Leinster)
Simon Zebo (Munster)*
Andrew Trimble (Ulster)
Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster) Captain
Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster)
Keith Earls (Munster)
Darren Cave (Ulster)
Fergus McFadden (Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)
Ronan O'Gara (Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Leinster)
Conor Murray (Munster)
AN Other (scrumhalf)
*Denotes Uncapped Player
