Ireland release Rory Scannell and Ultan Dillane from World Cup training squad

Ireland have cut their World Cup training squad down from 45 to 43 ahead of their first warm-up match for the tournament.

Joe Schmidt's Ireland are back in action for the first time since the Six Nations concluded, five months ago. Conor O'Shea's Italy are paying a visit and will take on Ireland at the Aviva Stadium from 2pm on Saturday. Ahead of that match, the IRFU has released a brief squad update that looks to have settled the faith of two players - Rory Scannell and Ultan Dillane. In part, the statement reads:

'The Ireland squad enter their first match week and have returned to their usual Maynooth training base after completing five tough weeks of pre-season training. The squad started with two training weeks at Carton House followed by a week at Connacht Rugby’s base in Galway and a week in UL at Munster’s training base...

'There have been two regeneration weeks included in the schedule while last week was spent at the IRFU’s new High Performance Centre in west Dublin. 'Ultan Dillane and Rory Scannell have returned to their provincial bases.'

Scannell is heading back to Munster to filter back into their pre-season plans while Dillane returns to Connacht. While Scannell was an outside bet for a place in the Irish midfield [he has not added to his three caps since 2017], Dillane being cut loose is more of a surprise. The Connacht lock has 14 Test appearances to his name and featured three times in the Six Nations.

[caption id="attachment_142075" align="aligncenter" width="647"]

(Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)[/caption] As well as that update, the IRFU confirmed their now 43-man squad, which includes Ulster's Will Addison.

Forwards (23)

Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht) 9 caps Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 117 caps Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 5 caps Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster) 14 caps Sean Cronin (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 68 caps Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 33 caps Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 88 caps Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 44 caps Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 7 caps Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 29 caps Jean Kleyn (Munster) 0 caps Jack McGrath (St Marys College/Leinster) 54 caps Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Ulster) 27 caps Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) 12 caps Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 57 caps Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 14 caps Rhys Ruddock (Lansdowne/Leinster) 21 caps James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 18 caps Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 14 caps CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 31 caps Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 64 caps Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 17 caps

Backs (20)

Will Addison (Enniskillen/Ulster) 3 caps Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 17 caps Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 2 caps Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 18 caps Jack Carty (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 caps Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 12 caps John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 8 caps Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 77 caps Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 5 caps Mike Haley (Munster) 0 caps Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 37 caps Dave Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster) 17 caps Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 90 caps Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 13 caps Kieran Marmion (Galwegians/Connacht) 25 caps Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 10 caps Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 72 caps Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 20 caps Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 83 caps Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 19 caps

Top Story

Huge changes in store as Lions launch bid to tour new countries

This could be massive! The Lions could soon be adding a new country to their list of touring destinations, according to an exclusive report from The Telegraph. The iconic representative team – which combines the best players from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales – currently tour South Africa, Australia and New Zealand on a rotating […]

Rugby

3 min

Ireland have cut their World Cup training squad down from 45 to 43 ahead of their first warm-up match for the tournament.

'The Ireland squad enter their first match week and have returned to their usual Maynooth training base after completing five tough weeks of pre-season training. The squad started with two training weeks at Carton House followed by a week at Connacht Rugby’s base in Galway and a week in UL at Munster’s training base...

'There have been two regeneration weeks included in the schedule while last week was spent at the IRFU’s new High Performance Centre in west Dublin. 'Ultan Dillane and Rory Scannell have returned to their provincial bases.'

(Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)

Ireland release Rory Scannell and Ultan Dillane from World Cup training squad

Home›rugby

Ireland have cut their World Cup training squad down from 45 to 43 ahead of their first warm-up match for the tournament.

Forwards (23)

Backs (20)

Ireland have cut their World Cup training squad down from 45 to 43 ahead of their first warm-up match for the tournament.

Forwards (23)

Backs (20)

Home rugby