LAST UPDATE | 1 Mar 2021

IRELAND HEAD COACH Andy Farrell has released 13 players from the Ireland squad to play for their provinces in this weekend’s Pro14 derbies, while he will gather a 23-man group for a short training camp later this week as preparations begin for the Six Nations clash with Scotland on 14 March.

The following players have been released to their provinces ahead of the inter-provincial clashes between Munster and Connacht at Thomond Park on Friday, and Ulster and Leinster at Kingspan Stadium on Saturday:

Connacht: Bundee Aki, Ultan Dillane, Dave Heffernan

Leinster: Ed Byrne, Ross Byrne, Rhys Ruddock, Josh van der Flier

Munster: Craig Casey, Andrew Conway, Shane Daly, Chris Farrell

Ulster: Stuart McCloskey and Tom O’Toole.

Ireland confirmed that the four players who sustained injuries during Saturday’s win over Italy in Rome – Jordan Larmour [hip], Tadgh Furlong [ankle], Dave Kilcoyne [head injury], and Ronan Kelleher [ankle] – are continuing their recovery under the supervision of the national medical team.

All four of them will be part of Ireland’s two-day training camp on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Interestingly, Farrell has opted to retain 21-year-old lock Ryan Baird, who made his debut off the bench against Italy. The Leinster youngster will hope to be involved against Scotland in two weekends’ time.

Ireland’s 23-man squad for training camp:

Forwards:

Cian Healy 
Dave Kilcoyne 
Rob Herring
Ronan Kelleher
Andrew Porter
Tadhg Furlong
James Ryan
Iain Henderson 
Ryan Baird 
Tadhg Beirne
Jack Conan
Will Connors
CJ Stander

Backs:

Conor Murray
Jamison Gibson Park 
Johnny Sexton
Billy Burns 
Robbie Henshaw
Garry Ringrose
Hugo Keenan
Jordan Larmour
James Lowe
Keith Earls.