Munster back row Niall Ronan has been drafted into the Ireland squad to tour New Zealand and Australia in place of Leinster player Kevin McLaughlin.
McLaughlin injured his knee while playing for Leinster in the Magners League Grand Final on Saturday and will undergo further tests and exploratory surgery this week to ascertain the extent of the injury.
Ronan, who won the first of his two caps last year on the summer tour to Canada and the USA, has joined up with the rest of the squad in Limerick as they prepare for the first game of the tour against the Barbarians on Friday night in Thomond Park.
Shane Jennings, who was also forced from the field injured during the Magners League Grand Final, has had his injured ankle scanned. The injury is not as serious as feared and he will be joining the squad on Tuesday with the remaining players who were involved in finals at the weekend.
Meantime, the Ireland backroom staff are confident that the injury surrounding the withdrawal of Paul O’Connell from the Irish tour to New Zealand and Australia is not something that would keep him out of the game in the long term. Paul McNaughton told the Sunday Independent that despite the fact that O’Connell has not played since the Six Nations;
“Our honest view is that he is recovering and that he will be fit next season and the only reason we’re not bringing him on tour is that he wouldn’t have been fit for any of the matches,” he said. “We’re all expecting him to be playing after a good pre-season.”
Ireland Squad (33):
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)
John Fogarty (De la Salle Palmerston/Leinster)*
John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)*
Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)
Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster)
Shane Jennings (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)
Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*
John Muldoon (Galwegians/Connacht)
Geordan Murphy (Leicester)
Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Ed O’Donoghue (Ballynahinch/Ulster)*
Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)
Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
Niall Ronan (Shannon/Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary’s College/Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)*
David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
*Denotes uncapped player
