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Ireland name two uncapped players in training squad

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Ireland have named two uncapped players in a 44-man training squad for their upcoming internationals.

Ireland have named two uncapped players in a 44-man training squad for their upcoming internationals.

The squad, which will feature in a pre-season period taking in camps in Galway and Limerick as well as their usual Maynooth base, sees Mike Haley and Jean Kleyn take their place for the first time.

Elsewhere, Ireland forward Sean O’Brien, who featured in four of his country’s Guinness Six Nations fixtures earlier this year, misses out as he is due to have hip surgery in the coming weeks and faces six months on the sidelines.

Ireland have a busy summer calendar where they will contest two summer internationals away from home with Guinness Six Nations rematches against England at Twickenham Stadium and Wales at the Principality Stadium where they will look to avenge 20-32 and 25-7 defeats to both respectively in this year’s competition.

Ireland are also set to host Guinness Six Nations rivals Italy and Wales at the Aviva Stadium in home summer internationals.

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said: “There were some very close calls in selection and it’s always a challenging process because the coaching group are very conscious of how hard the players work.

“It’s ideal that they get a good opportunity to relax for a few weeks before getting stuck into pre-season training and the busy Guinness Series in the lead up to the World Cup.

“Some players have missed out through injury and there are one or two guys that may be added into the squad at a later stage.”

Ireland training squad:

Forwards

Finlay Bealham (Connacht) 9 caps

Rory Best (Ulster) 117 caps

Tadhg Beirne (Munster) 5 caps

Jack Conan (Leinster) 14 caps

Sean Cronin (Leinster) 68 caps

Ultan Dillane (Connacht) 14 caps

Tadhg Furlong (Leinster) 33 caps

Cian Healy (Leinster) 88 caps

Iain Henderson (Ulster) 44 caps

Rob Herring (Ulster) 7 caps

Dave Kilcoyne (Munster) 29 caps

Jean Kleyn (Munster) 0 caps

Jack McGrath (Leinster) 54 caps

Jordi Murphy (Ulster) 27 caps

Tommy O’Donnell (Munster) 12 caps

Peter O’Mahony (Munster) 57 caps

Andrew Porter (Leinster) 14 caps

Rhys Ruddock (Leinster) 21 caps

James Ryan (Leinster) 17 caps

John Ryan (Munster) 18 caps

Niall Scannell (Munster) 14 caps

CJ Stander (Munster) 31 caps

Devin Toner (Leinster) 64 caps

Josh van der Flier (Leinster) 17 caps

Backs

Bundee Aki (Connacht) 17 caps

Ross Byrne (Leinster) 2 caps

Joey Carbery (Munster) 18 caps

Jack Carty (Connacht) 3 caps

Andrew Conway (Munster) 12 caps

John Cooney (Ulster) 8 caps

Keith Earls (Munster) 77 caps

Chris Farrell (Munster) 5 caps

Mike Haley (Munster) 0 caps

Robbie Henshaw (Leinster) 37 caps

Dave Kearney (Leinster) 17 caps

Rob Kearney (Leinster) 90 caps

Jordan Larmour (Leinster) 13 caps

Kieran Marmion (Connacht) 25 caps

Luke McGrath (Leinster) 10 caps

Conor Murray (Munster) 72 caps

Garry Ringrose (Leinster) 20 caps

Rory Scannell (Munster) 3 caps

Jonathan Sexton (Leinster) 83 caps

Jacob Stockdale (Ulster) 19 caps