Ireland have named their squad for their upcoming tour of North America. Rory Best will lead the team that features only six new players. The team is withouth the service of it’s British and Irish Lions players, including Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Sean O’Brien, Cian Healy, Tommy Bowe, Rob Kearny, Jamie Heaslip, and Jonathan Sexton. Also not considered for the tour due to injury or other reasons are players like Stephen Ferris, Luke Fitzgerald, Luke Marshall, and Gordon D’Arcy.
The U.S. will play Ireland on June 8th in Houston. The two teams last met in the 2011 World Cup. Ireland came away with a 22-10 victory but the physicality of the U.S. surprised a few people, including the Irish. Considering that Ireland is taking a weakened squad and the U.S. looks to have it’s full squad healthy and ready to go for the Ireland match, it could be a closer than expected results. That said, Ireland’s tour squad features plenty of quality players. Paddy Jackson, Ian Madigan, Tommy O’Donnell, Andrew Trimble, and Simon Zebo are all in the squad and should give the U.S. plenty of trouble.
Ireland team:
Rory Best (Ulster), Issac Boss (Leinster), Darren Cave (Ulster), Tom Court (Ulster), Declan Fitzpatrick (Ulster), Jamie Hagan (Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ulster), Chris Henry (Ulster), Robie Henshaw (Connacht), Paddy Jackson (Ulster), Felix Jones (Munster), David Kilcoyne (Munster), Ian Madigan (Leinster), Kieran Marmion (Connacht), Paul Marshall (Ulster), Mike McCarthy (Connacht), Fergus McFadden (Leinster), Kevin McLaughlin (Leinster), Tommy O’Donnell (Munster), Stuart Olding (Ulster), Peter O’Mahony (Munster), Mike Ross (Leinster), Mike Sherry (Munster), Richardt Strauss (Leinster), Devin Toner (Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Dan Tuohy (Ulster), Simon Zebo (Munster)