Andy Farrell has announced an extended Ireland panel for a 'stocktake' on December 22nd and 23rd, with Rob Kearney a noticeable absentee.
Others to miss out include Jack Carty, John Ryan, Sean Cronin, and Kieran Marmion.
Devin Toner finds himself back in the fold, while the likes of Dave Kearney, Jamison Gibson-Park are also included. Ross Byrne and Billy Burns have seemingly moved ahead of Carty at out-half.
Farrell has named 45 player who will attend the get together at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre in Dublin, telling the IRFU website it will be a good opportunity to meet the players ahead of a very busy period.
The national coaches have been around the provinces watching games and having good conversations with players and the provincial coaches.
We have limited opportunities across the busy provincial season to bring a broad group like this together but this 24hr window will allow us to plant a few seeds. It will also give the coaches a better insight into a few players who been performing consistently well for their provinces.
The next six weeks is the window for players to put their hands up for selection for our first squad which will be named in late January ahead of the 6 Nations.
45-Man Squad In Full
Connacht:
Bundee Aki, Caolin Blade, Ultan Dillane, Dave Heffernan, Quinn Roux
Leinster:
Ross Byrne, Will Connors, Max Deegan, Caelan Doris, Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson Park, Cian Healy, Robbie Henshaw, Dave Kearney, Ronan Kelleher, Jordan Larmour, Luke McGrath, Andrew Porter, Garry Ringrose, Rhys Ruddock, James Ryan, Jonathan Sexton, Devin Toner, Josh van der Flier
Munster:
Joey Carbery, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Mike Haley, Dave Kilcoyne, Jean Kleyn, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, Niall Scannell, Rory Scannell, CJ Stander
Ulster:
Will Addison, Billy Burns, John Cooney, Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Stuart McCloskey, Marty Moore, Tom O’Toole, Jacob Stockdale
