Ireland omit Devin Toner from World Cup squad

Colin Newboult

Devin Toner of Ireland during the Guinness Summer Series match at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 10, 2019. See PA story RUGBYU Ireland. Photo credit should read: Donall Farmer/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS APPLY: Editorial use only. No commercial or promotional use without prior consent from IRFU. No alterations or doctoring

Second-row Devin Toner is the surprise omission from Ireland’s 31-man Rugby World Cup squad, with head coach Joe Schmidt selecting the South African-born Jean Kleyn instead.

Kleyn only made his debut against Italy and started in the heavy 57-15 defeat to England at Twickenham last month.

Scrum-half Kieran Marmion has also been left out, with Luke McGrath the preferred choice, while utility back Will Addison did not make the cut, despite his versatility and impressing against Wales.

The squad is captained by Rory Best who will play at a fourth Rugby World Cup having been involved in the 2007, 2011, 2015 editions.

Six of the squad named featured at the previous two Rugby World Cups (2011 & 2015) – Sean Cronin, Keith Earls, Cian Healy, Rob Kearney, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton, while a further five played in the 2015 tournament – Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson, Robbie Henshaw, Peter O’Mahony and Rhys Ruddock.

Ireland are in Pool A and will play Scotland, Japan, Russia and Samoa. Ireland’s opening fixture is against Scotland at the Yokohama Stadium in Tokyo.

Six days later Ireland will take on tournament hosts Japan in Shizuoka before playing Russia in Kobe the following Thursday. Ireland’s final pool game is against Samoa on Saturday 12th in Fukuoka.

Head coach Joe Schmidt said: “It was a difficult thing right from the start to have the 45 that we had. We went down to 40 players and to go from 40 down to 31 was really difficult, but we had a process whereby we looked back through every training, looked through the games.

“There were some guys who obviously had more experience, probably had more credit in the bank and were more established, and there were other guys who were trying to force their way into the group and trying to get a balance of current form versus previous performance. It’s always a very very difficult conundrum to try to solve.

“It was one of those typical selection meetings where maybe 20-25 of the players are listed straight away and it’s those ones where you’re are trying to get balance.

“It’s very difficult to choose between two players and two players who offer slightly different things. You’re trying then to narrow it down and trying to get the best balance across the squad of the entire 31 because that’s part of what you need to do.

“You’ve got to make sure you have cover that’s immediate, even though you can replace players there is obviously a big time delay in that.”

Ireland’s Rugby World Cup squad

Forwards: Rory Best, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Sean Cronin, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Iain Henderson, Jean Kleyn, Peter O’Mahony, Andrew Porter, Rhys Ruddock, James Ryan, John Ryan, Niall Scannell, CJ Stander, Josh van der Flier

Backs: Bundee Aki, Joey Carbery, Jack Carty, Andrew Conway, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Robbie Henshaw, Rob Kearney, Jordan Larmour, Luke McGrath, Conor Murray, Garry Ringrose, Jonathan Sexton, Jacob Stockdale

News