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Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt has announced Ireland’s 31-man roster for the World Cup. The naming of the squad came with surprises with Devin Toner being the notable missing name. In his place is South African import Jean Kleyn.
Captain Rory Best will compete in his fourth RWC with his final cap to be Ireland’s final fixture in the tournament. He is to be joined by six others from RWCs 2011 and 2015 – Sean Cronin, Keith Earls, Cian Healy, Rob Kearney, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton. As well as Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson, Robbie Henshaw, Peter O’Mahony and Rhys Ruddock who all played in RWC 2015.
The 19 other players on Schmidt’s roster will be making their RWC debuts. They are Bundee Aki, Tadgh Beirne, Joey Carbery, Jack Carty, Jack Conan, Andrew Conway, Chris Farrell, Dave Kilcoyne, Jean Kleyn, Jordan Larmour, Luke McGrath, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, John Ryan, Niall Scannell, CJ Stander, Garry Ringrose, Jacob Stockdale and Josh van der Flier.
Before departing for Japan Ireland have one remaining warm-up fixture. They are to play host to Wales on Saturday in Dublin.
Ireland play in Pool A of RWC 2019. They are to do so against Japan, Russia, Samoa, and Scotland. There opening match will be on Sunday, September 22 against Scotland in Yokohama. Subsequent matches will be against Japan in Shizuoka on Saturday, September 28; Russia in Kobe on Thursday, October 03; and Samoa in Fukuoka on Saturday, October 12.
A detailed squad list can be seen by clicking here.
IRELAND WORLD CUP ROSTER
FORWARDS: Rory Best, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Iain Henderson, Jean Kleyn, Peter O’Mahony, Andrew Porter, Rhys Ruddock, James Ryan, John Ryan, Niall Scannell, CJ Stander, Josh van der Flier
BACKS: Bundee Aki, Joey Carbery, Jack Carty, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Robbie Henshaw, Rob Kearney, Jordan Larmour, Luke McGrath, Conor Murray, Garry Ringrose, Jonathan Sexton, Jacob Stockdale
