Ireland Summer Tour Squad

[hellovating]

Ireland squad to tour the USA and Japan:

Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht) 6 caps
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Leinster) 3 caps
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 1 cap
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 1 cap
John Cooney (Connacht) uncapped
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 59 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 67 caps
Dave Heffernan (Connacht/Buccaneers) uncapped
Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster) 23 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 17 caps
Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps
Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht) 13 caps
Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster) 9 caps
Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 1 cap
Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps
Jack O’Donoghue (UL Bohemians/Munster) 1 cap
Tiernan O’Halloran (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 caps
Rory O’Loughlin (Old Belvedere/Leinster) uncapped
Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) uncapped
Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 8 caps
Rhys Ruddock (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 13 caps
James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) uncapped
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 6 caps
Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 4 caps
Rory Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) uncapped
Jacob Stockdale (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) uncapped
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 47 caps
James Tracy (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps
Kieran Treadwell (Ballymena/Ulster) uncapped
Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 7 caps
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) 33 caps

Ireland Squad Summer Tour 2017 - USA & Japan Fixtures:
USA v IRELAND
Saturday 10th June, 2017, KO 17:00 (BST 22:00)
Red Bull Arena, New Jersey, USA
Japan v IRELAND
Saturday 17th June, 2017 KO 14:00 (BST 06:00)
Ecopa Stadium, Shizuoka, Japan
Japan v IRELAND
Saturday 24th June, 2017 KO 14:40 (BST 06:40)
Ajinomoto Stadium, Tokyo, Japan

[hellovating]

few ould fellas rested / omitted.... heaslip, cronin, kearney, d ryan..

few good young fellas ignored.... sweetnam, byrne

[hellovating]

Rhys Ruddock to captain?

[Eugene Wrayburn]

few ould fellas rested / omitted.... heaslip, cronin, kearney, d ryan..

few good young fellas ignored.... sweetnam, byrne

Has Heaslip recovered from injury? Kearney? Very surprised Sean Cronin isn't going. He provides such a point of difference and is perfect coming off the bench. I also thought he had an outside chance of a Lions call up.

With the surprising decision to take Nowell to the Lions we have a full complement of wingers. Stockdale is the man elevated and rightly so. He's been excellent for Ulster this year and really ought to have been our first choice on the wing.

[hellovating]

i'd have gone all out youth, euge and given earls, healy, toner and zebo the summer off. maybe keep ruddock as captain because there isn't an obvious young captain in the squad, except for james ryan, who's about 12 and yet to even play for leinster. niall scannell captained the irish under 20s i guess. no point in tommy o d going either. leavy's ceiling is so far above tommy at his best.

is it advantageous to be on this tour, if you were hoping for a lions call up? i'm sure heaslip and cronin would be in the squad if it was a tour to NZ.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

I'd say that Simon will end up in NZ before the end of the tour and the toss-up then is between Byrne and Darren to replace him.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

i'd have gone all out youth, euge and given earls, healy, toner and zebo the summer off. maybe keep ruddock as captain because there isn't an obvious young captain in the squad, except for james ryan, who's about 12 and yet to even play for leinster. niall scannell captained the irish under 20s i guess. no point in tommy o d going either. leavy's ceiling is so far above tommy at his best.

is it advantageous to be on this tour, if you were hoping for a lions call up? i'm sure heaslip and cronin would be in the squad if it was a tour to NZ.

One reason for not going all out youth is that you want those who are likely to be in the RWC squad to get a taste of Japanese conditions and culture in advance. Those in Japan will be in more or less the same time zone as the Lions so I'd have thought they'd have an advantage if they tour.

I've no particular view on captain. Rhys is a good one, but does he make the team?

[hellovating]

i'd have gone all out youth, euge and given earls, healy, toner and zebo the summer off. maybe keep ruddock as captain because there isn't an obvious young captain in the squad, except for james ryan, who's about 12 and yet to even play for leinster. niall scannell captained the irish under 20s i guess. no point in tommy o d going either. leavy's ceiling is so far above tommy at his best.

is it advantageous to be on this tour, if you were hoping for a lions call up? i'm sure heaslip and cronin would be in the squad if it was a tour to NZ.

One reason for not going all out youth is that you want those who are likely to be in the RWC squad to get a taste of Japanese conditions and culture in advance. Those in Japan will be in more or less the same time zone as the Lions so I'd have thought they'd have an advantage if they tour.

I've no particular view on captain. Rhys is a good one, but does he make the team?

he's the only player in the squad who's best position is blindside, i think.

do ye ulster lads think stockdale will be a wing or full back, long term.

in their best positions (my opinion) in no particular order.. i believe dillane has been added to the squad, pending his return this weekend. i also heard porter was being used at tighthead recently for UCD.

healy, kilcoyne, porter
scannell, heffernan, tracy
ryan, bealham
ryan, toner
treadwell, dillane
ruddock
van der flier, leavy, o'donnell
o'donoghue, conan
marmion, cooney, mcgrath
carberry, jackson,
earls
scannell, marshall,
ringrose
o'loughlin
zebo, stockdale, conway, o'halloran

[Spiffy]

i'd have gone all out youth, euge and given earls, healy, toner and zebo the summer off. maybe keep ruddock as captain because there isn't an obvious young captain in the squad, except for james ryan, who's about 12 and yet to even play for leinster. niall scannell captained the irish under 20s i guess. no point in tommy o d going either. leavy's ceiling is so far above tommy at his best.

is it advantageous to be on this tour, if you were hoping for a lions call up? i'm sure heaslip and cronin would be in the squad if it was a tour to NZ.

One reason for not going all out youth is that you want those who are likely to be in the RWC squad to get a taste of Japanese conditions and culture in advance. Those in Japan will be in more or less the same time zone as the Lions so I'd have thought they'd have an advantage if they tour.

I've no particular view on captain. Rhys is a good one, but does he make the team?

he's the only player in the squad who's best position is blindside, i think.

do ye ulster lads think stockdale will be a wing or full back, long term.

in their best positions (my opinion) in no particular order.. i believe dillane has been added to the squad, pending his return this weekend. i also heard porter was being used at tighthead recently for UCD.

healy, kilcoyne, porter
scannell, heffernan, tracy
ryan, bealham
ryan, toner
treadwell, dillane
ruddock
van der flier, leavy, o'donnell
o'donoghue, conan
marmion, cooney, mcgrath
carberry, jackson,
earls
scannell, marshall,
ringrose
o'loughlin
zebo, stockdale, conway, o'halloran

I think Stockdale's best position could be 13 (and he may have the capacity to play at 12 too). His best tries this year have come from running some great lines in the midfield, he has real pace and footballing skills, and he's a big powerful lad. Apart from Ringrose there are not many Irish 13s with great gas. If everyone remains fit it would be hard to see the Henshaw/Ringrose combination broken up, but who knows. In any case Stockdale would be the perfect bencher to cover several slots with some impact. He had a few howlers in his last couple of games for Ulster and is still a bit raw, but his talent is clear to see.

[hellovating]

This time next year Farrell will be in possession of that jersey.....

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Stockdale is definitely not a 12 or 13. Nowhere near the handling skill for it and he's much better running from deep.

He's a bit raw at 15 at the moment but long term, post Piutau that's where I'd be looking for him to play.