Andy Farrell has named a 37 player squad ahead of the 2022 Guinness Six Nations Championship. The group includes Joey Carbery, Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson who are all recovering from injury but there is no place for James Lowe who lit up the Aviva Stadium in November against his native New Zealand.
The wing has been revealed as carrying a calf injury that will sideline him for a number of weeks.
The squad will be captained by Johnny Sexton who earned his 100th cap for his country against Japan during the November international window.
There are 16 Leinster players in the squad, nine from Munster, eight from Ulster and four from Connacht.
Ireland will host Wales, Italy and Scotland at the Aviva Stadium over the course of the Championship while also travelling to Paris and London to face France and England respectively.
Ulster’s Michael Lowry and Connacht’s Mack Hansen are both named in the squad for the first time and there is also a return for Connacht Out Half Jack Carty.
Connacht’s Cian Prendergast will join the squad for the training camp in Portugal as a Development Player. The former Ireland U20 player has made nine appearances for Connacht this season.
“In November we challenged the group to get up to speed quickly so that the team could perform at an international level,” said Farrell. “The same will apply for this Six Nations campaign, we need to be at our best against Wales on the opening weekend.”
“We have a strong squad with competition for places across the board, there is a nice blend of experienced internationals and guys who have had their first taste of this level in the past 12 months. The games in November gave us a good foundation to build on and areas where we know we will have to improve.”
“It will be an exciting Championship with so many strong squads and impressive performances across the board during the Autumn.”
Ireland’s opening fixture of the 2022 Six Nations Championship is against Wales on Saturday 5th February. A week later, the squad will travel to France to take on Les Bleus in Paris. In Round 3, on Sunday 27th February, Ireland host Italy at the Aviva Stadium and then travel to Twickenham to take on England two weeks later.
In the final round of the Championship, Ireland host Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday 19th March.
All games will be available on free-to-air television in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. ITV (NI) will broadcast all of Ireland’s games, RTE in the Republic of Ireland will broadcast the games against Wales and England while Virgin Media will broadcast the games against France, Italy and Scotland.
The broadcast coverage will be sponsored across both channels here by Ireland team partner Vodafone.
