Update Wednesday 5th October 11.25 am
As happens before every official Ireland gathering, Joe Schmidt held an extended squad meeting in Carton House on Monday in preparation for the upcoming international window.
As usual, the list of these players never gets released - eventually some news comes through from individual players saying what it was like - but for the most part we don't know. But, there are some titbits that are out there about Monday's gathering - like how Darren Sweetnam was one of ten Munster players involved - after injuries to Fergus McFadden, Matt Healy, and the Kearney brothers.
Joey Carberry was another named call-up to the squad, the New Zealand born outhalf has impressed at the start of the season, filling in for Johnny Sexton. On Wednesday, the Belfast Telegraph reported that Niyi Adeolokun was one of six Connacht players involved in the meet-up.
And while there is no photographic evidence of the Irish squad at Carton House, there were Sportsfile photographers at each of the provincial training sessions that were conducted at the same time. Therefore, anyone seen at provincial training probably wasn't in the get together.
Let's start with Munster training. There are pictures of James Cronin, Duncan Casey, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer, John Ryan, Jack O'Donoghue, Ian Keatley, and Andrew Conway in training.
If there are only ten Munster players in the Irish squad - that leaves - Dave Kilcoyne, Donnacha Ryan, Peter O'Mahony, Tommy O'Donnell, CJ Stander, Conor Murray, Keith Earls, Darren Sweetnam, Rory Scannell, and Simon Zebo.
You can see the full Munster training images here.
Connacht training featured some players on the fringes of an Ireland call-up, like Peter Robb, Sean O'Brien, and Jake Heenan. But there was notably no Niyi Adeolokun, Caolan Blade, or Cian Kelleher. It's not to say that Kelleher, Blade, or Adeolokun are in the Irish squad - but the Nigerian-born winger must be a contender.
You can see the full Connacht training images here. (and here)
In Leinster, there were a few notable players present in training. Ross Molony, James Tracy, Mick Kearney, and Jack Conan were all there - but Dan Leavy, Luke McGrath, Jordi Murphy, and Noel Reid weren't photographed at training.
You can see the full Leinster training images here.
There are not photos available to us from Ulster training. By my count, including fringe Ulster players, there are about 53 players available (not injured), who could have been at the camp.
Predicted Ireland Squad:
Jack McGrath, Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Denis Buckley.
Sean Cronin, Rory Best, Rob Herring.
Mike Ross, Tadhg Furlong, Finlay Bealham.
Devin Toner, Mike McCarthy, Iain Henderson, Ultan Dillane, Donnacha Ryan.
Rhys Ruddock, Jordi Murphy, Josh van der Flier, Jamie Heaslip, Tommy O'Donnell, Peter O'Mahony, CJ Stander.
Luke McGrath, Kieran Marmion, Conor Murray.
Johnny Sexton, Joey Carberry, Paddy Jackson.
Robbie Henshaw, Rory Scannell, Garry Ringrose, Jared Payne
Tiernan O'Halloran, Simon Zebo, Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble, Craig Gilroy, Darren Sweetnam, Keith Earls, Niyi Adeolokun
