Three surprises in exciting Ireland squad to tour Australia

Joe Schmidt has named the Ireland squad heading Down Under next month.

There are two uncapped players named in the Ireland squad for the three-test summer tour of Australia next month. Surprise inclusion Ross Byrne of Leinster is in line to earn his first cap, as is Munster-bound Tadhg Beirne. Ulster duo Rob Herring and Quinn Roux being named may also take a few folks off guard. Meanwhile, there's no room for Luke McGrath, Sam Arnold or Ultan Dillane in the squad captained by Rory Best. The first Test goes down in Brisbane on June 9. The Irish will travel to Melbourne the following week for the second Test while the tour will wrap up in Sydney on June 23.   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 (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 9 caps