Two uncapped players in Ireland squad to tour Australia

Joe Schmidt called it their "most difficult selection process" yet.

Two uncapped players in Ireland squad to tour Australia

By Stephen Barry

Joe Schmidt has named two uncapped players in his 32-man squad to tour Australia next month.

Munster-bound Tadhg Beirne receives his first call-up, as the Scarlets second-row prepares for his final game for the Welsh province against Leinster in the Pro14 final.

Leinster out-half Ross Byrne has also been named in the squad, alongside clubmates Johhny Sexton and Joey Carbery.

Ulster scrum-half John Cooney, who has one cap to his name, also gets a call-up for the three-Test tour.

Robbie Henshaw makes the squad despite being ruled out of Saturday's Pro14 final with a knee injury.

His potential partner in the centre Bundee Aki has also been included despite being forced to withdraw from the Barbarians' test with England this weekend due to an ankle injury.

Joe Schmidt called it their "most difficult selection process" yet.

"This has probably been the most difficult selection process for the coaching group to date," he said.

"We sat down on Monday morning to review the last pieces of footage and to discuss the balance and combinations that we felt we might need in Australia.

"At midday today we made the final decisions which included a number of very tough calls and some players are incredibly unlucky to miss out on selection.

"Over the past couple of months the national coaches have spent time in the provinces and been in communication with the provincial coaches who have done a super job in managing the players across the season.

"The coaching group are excited by the challenge that this three Test tour will present and from talking to the players we get a sense that they too are excited about going on Tour and testing themselves against one of the best sides in the world in their own backyard."

Ireland Squad (Summer Tour 2018, Australia)

FORWARDS (18)

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) Captain 111 caps

Tadhg Beirne (Scarlets) uncapped

Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 7 caps

Sean Cronin (St Mary's College/Leinster) 61 caps

Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 23 caps

Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 78 caps

Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 38 caps

Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 3 caps

Dan Leavy (UCD/Leinster) 9 caps

Jack McGrath (St Mary's College/Leinster) 47 caps

Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster) 20 caps

Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 47 caps

Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 7 caps

Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 5 caps

James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 8 caps

John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 13 caps

CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 23 caps

Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 58 caps

BACKS (14)

Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 7 caps

Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) uncapped

Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Leinster) 10 caps

Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 6 caps

John Cooney (Terenure College RFC/Ulster) 1 cap

Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 67 caps

Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 33 caps

Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 83 caps

Jordan Larmour (St Mary's College/Leinster) 3 caps

Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht) 21 caps

Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 64 caps

Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 13 caps

Johnny Sexton (St Mary's College/Leinster) 73 caps

Jacob Stockdale (Ballynahnch/Ulster) 9 caps

IRELAND SUMMER TOUR 2018 FIXTURES

Saturday 9th June, 2018

Australia v IRELAND

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

Saturday 16th June, 2018

Australia v IRELAND

AAMI Park, Melbourne, KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

Saturday 23rd June, 2018

Australia v IRELAND

Allianz Park, Sydney KO 20.05 local (11.05 IRL)

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