Joe Schmidt has named his 31-man Ireland squad for the Rugby World Cup.
It's official, after a morning of rumours and leaks, the official Irish Rugby World Cup squad has been released, six days ahead of the originally planned announcement and schedule.
Irish Rugby has tweeted the squad this Monday afternoon and the big news is confirmed: Devin Toner misses out on a seat on the plane to Japan later this month.
Other notable omissions include Will Addison, Jordi Murphy, Kieran Marmion and Ross Byrne.
Meanwhile, Chris Farrell and Andrew Conway, who both performed well in Saturday's victory over Wales in Cardiff, make the squad.
England's Mark Wilson gets tackled by Ireland's Devin Toner during the Guinness Six Nations match at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.Irish Rugby have released an official statement which includes the confirmation that Rory Best will captain the side in what will be his fourth consecutive Rugby World Cup.
Here is the squad in full, which includes 17 forwards and 14 backs:
Forwards (17)
Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 119 caps CAPTAIN
Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 8 caps
Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 15 caps
Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 69 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 35 caps
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 90 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 30 caps
Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 47 caps
Jean Kleyn (Munster) 2 caps
Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 59 caps
Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps
Rhys Ruddock (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 22 caps
James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 18 caps
John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 20 caps
Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 16 caps
CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 32 caps
Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 18 caps
Backs (14)
Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 19 caps
Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 19 caps
Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 6 caps
Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 15 caps
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 77 caps
Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 5 caps
Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 37 caps
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 91 caps
Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 15 caps
Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 13 caps
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 73 caps
Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 23 caps
Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 83 caps
Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 20 caps
And here is the confirmation of Ireland's schedule for the four pool games in Japan:
IRELAND v Scotland
Yokohama Stadium, Sunday 22nd September, 2019 KO: 08.45 (Irish Times)
IRELAND v Japan
Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, Saturday 28th September, 2019 KO: 08.15 (Irish Time)
IRELAND v Russia
Misaki Stadium, Thursday 3rd October, 2019 KO: 11.15 (Irish Time)
IRELAND v Samoa
Fukuoka Hakatanomi Stadium, Saturday 12th October. 2019 KO: 11.45 (Irish Time)
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