Paul O’Connell, Stephen Ferris, Tom Court and Tommy Bowe have been named in a 33-strong Ireland squad today for a two-day training camp.
The experienced internationals missed the summer tour but are included today in order to prepare for the Guinness Series.
A further squad will be announced for the series in late October following the completion of the second round of the Heineken Cup.
The uncapped players in the squad are forward Dave O’Callaghan, centre Luke Marshall and former U20 international Iain Henderson, who impressed during the recent IRB Junior World Championship in South Africa during the summer.
In addition there are also some players who did play in June but who are sitting this camp out to either rehab current minor injuries or to finish off their pre-season, such as Rob Kearney.
There are also longer term absentees such as Luke Fitzgerald and Sean O’Brien but overall the squad generally contains two players per position.
Ireland Coach Declan Kidney said: “At this stage of the season it is about building foundations for the Guinness Series and it is vital to get the players together to do that.
"A number of them have yet to play, but it was important to include some of them from a positional sense for this camp, such as Paul O’Connell and Rory Best, as well as other players who missed the summer tour.
"There are a number of players who are not included due to injuries, but with more playing time and a lot of high level games to come, there is certainly time for them to push for their inclusion in the Guinness series squad and selection for the games in November."
Ireland training squad:
Rory Best (Banbridge – Ulster)
Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins – Ulster)
Tom Court (Malone – Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster – Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon – Ulster)
Declan Fitzpatrick (Dungannon – Ulster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf – Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas – Leinster)
Iain Henderson (Queens University – Ulster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena – Ulster)
Denis Hurley (Dolphin– Munster)
Luke Marshall (Ballymena – Ulster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen – Munster)
Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers – Connacht)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere – Leinster)
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary’s College – Leinster)
David O’Callaghan (Dolphin – Munster)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster – Munster)
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD – Leinster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution – Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne – Leinster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf – Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon – Munster)
Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary’s College – Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena – Ulster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena – Ulster)
Damien Varley (Garryowen – Munster)
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution – Munster)