Ireland confirm five players return to their provinces to continue pre-season training

Munster prop Jeremy Loughman has been added to the squad this week.

FIVE OUT: Head Coach Andy Farrell has begun trimming his squad. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ireland boss Andy Farrell has begun trimming his training squad ahead of next month’s Rugby World Cup by releasing five players from camp.

The head coach is set to announce his 33-man tournament squad on Monday, August 28, following Ireland’s final warm-up Test against Samoa in Bayonne two days earlier.

It appears Munster duo Gavin Coombes and Calvin Nash, Connacht scrum-half Caolin Blade, Leinster utility back Jamie Osborne and Ulster lock Kieran Treadwell’s hopes of making the final cut have suffered a decisive blow after they were sent back to their provinces on Wednesday to “continue their pre-season training programmes”.

Farrell will on Thursday name his matchday 23 for the Saturday’s final home game before the tournament, against England at Aviva Stadium but he will be selecting from a reduced pool following the departure of the unfortunate quintet.

Blade and winger Nash at least were given an opportunity in a match setting, appearing off the bench in the opening summer series Test, a 33-17 win over Italy in Dublin on August 5.

Yet No.8 Coombes, Treadwell and Osborne did not feature and now will not get that same chance, the Irish management having stressed all along that selection criteria would also include performances in training.

Ireland assistant John Fogarty on Tuesday praised Coombes’s contribution but hinted at the intense competition for back-row places within the training squad.

“He is good. I think when he came in at first, there were so many learnings,” Fogarty said of Coombes. “It’s slightly different when you have been in camp. I think he took his time learning those pieces.

“I think he is in a place now where he fully understands what he needs to do. So, it’s a matter of making sure that he is… delivering on them.

“He has had a good pre-season, he’s looking good. It’s so competitive isn’t it, across that back-row. We are so lucky to have that competitive piece within the group and he is fighting his way through it with the rest of them.”

The trimming of the squad leaves 38 players now vying for those final 33 places on the plane to France ahead of their Pool B opening game against Romania in Bordeaux on Saturday, September 9.

Captain Johnny Sexton is suspended until that opening fixture while there are injury doubts over No.8 Jack Conan and loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne for this weekend’s England clash.

Munster prop Jeremy Loughman was called up as cover for his provincial team-mate Kilcoyne earlier this week.