The squad for the 2020 Six Nations has been announced in the last 24 hours with 5 new faces included and in a new departure under Andy Farrell 4 development players will travel to Portugal for the pre Six Nations training camp.
Although Joe Schmidt did similar he did so quietly but Andy Farrell has nailed his colours to the mast early by naming 4 young players who will be able to learn from the more experienced players within the group. He has also named Jonathan Sexton as the new Ireland skipper to succeed Rory Best.
Men like Ultan Dillane and Dave Kearney have to chance to kick start international careers that looked to have stalled in recent seasons due to loss of form and injury but these two men will see their inclusion as a real positive start to 2020 and the Andy Farrell era.
Men like Stuart Mc Closkey, Niall Scannell and Sean Cronin will be disappointed not to be included but strong performances this weekend in Europe or maybe an injury in the Ireland squad will re open the door back to the National side. The initial disappointment will sting but some good strong performances will put all those players back in the shop window.
Looking at the squad as a whole it is defiantly one that has a strong Leinster contingent and rightly so but that does not mean that the first 23 named by Andy Farrell will be all Leinster, players from the other three provinces will feel that some good training will stand to them when his opening 23 in named in just under 2 weeks time.
Here is my 23 to face Scotland in Dublin on Saturday fortnight….
15 Jordan Larmour
14 Andrew Conway
13 Gary Ringrose
12 Bundee Aki
11 Jacob Stockdale
10 Ross Byrne
9 John Cooney
8 Caelan Doris
7 Josh Van Der Flier
6 Peter O Mahony
5 James Ryan
4 Iain Henderson
3 Tadgh Furlong
2 Ronan Kelleher
1 Cian Healy
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16 Dave Heffernan
17 Dave Kilcoyne
18 Andrew Porter
19 Devin Toner
20 Max Deegan
21 Conor Murray
22 Jonathan Sexton
23 Will Addison