You can like our main Facebook page here. Conway, Farrell and Cooney came through the Leinster academy before making the decision to move away for more regular rugby. We took a look though at where in the country, or out of the country, the squad hails from, Get all the very latest news in Ireland straight to your email every single day. The Irish Mirror Twitter account is @IrishMirror while our sports account is @MirrorSportIE. Wed 21 Oct 2020 17.25 EDT Jack Clowes is included on the list of Lions players despite not officially playing during any of their matches. Leinster scrum-half and fellow Kiwi Jamison Gibson-Park will become eligible to play for Ireland in June 2019. At the time of being selected for the Lions, Richards was playing rugby for Bristol RFC in England. We have seen that sport has returned at the elite level around the world. The majority of the players, 16 in all, are plying their trade for an all-conquering Leinster side, while Munster have 11 representatives. He then moved to Munster in 2017 where he become an integral part of their midfield. Gatland could still ultimately select Itoje as captain and has namechecked the second-row as a potential option but as he cannot take part against Japan, a match described on Wednesday as a “wonderful opportunity to impress Warren” by the Lions managing director Ben Calveley, his cause would not appear to be helped. In some countries we are seeing fans return into venues, we are seeing technology improve all the time, whether that is around testing capability or treatment for the virus and we are seeing borders open.”. Current stars Keith Earls and Conor Murray played on the same St Munchin's team that won the Munster Schools Rugby Senior Cup in 2006. If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. The show is set to 'give a voice' to the sexual predator's victims, Sacha Baron Cohen says Orlando Bloom is Katy Perry's 'husband' in saucy birthday clip, Sacha Baron Cohen appeared as Borat in a hilarious birthday message dedicated to Katy Perry. Both Ireland captain Rory Best and Iain Henderson were born in Craigavon in Armagh. 15 J Stockdale (Ulster)14 A Conway (Munster)13 G Ringrose (Leinster)12 B Aki (Connacht)11 H Keenan (Leinster)10 J Sexton (Leinster, capt)9 C Murray (Munster)1 C Healy (Leinster)2 R Herring (Ulster)3 A Porter (Leinster)4 T Beirne (Munster)5 James Ryan (Leinster)6 C Doris (Leinster)7 W Connors (Leinster)8 CJ Stander (Munster), ReplacementsD Heffernan (Connacht), E Byrne (Leinster), F Bealham, U Dillane (both Connacht), P O’Mahony (Munster), J Gibson-Park, R Byrne, R Henshaw (all Leinster). He moved to Tralee in his youth and was involved in Munster's youth setup for a time. Maro Itoje’s hopes of captaining the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa appear to have suffered a setback with England players unavailable for the pre-tour match against Japan next summer because of Premiership regulations. The versatile back then played over 100 matches for Sale before a move to Ulster and an Ireland call-up owing to his Fermanagh-born mother. Auckland-born Aki won a Super Rugby title with the Chiefs before he moved to Galway in 2014. We don’t have that agreement from Premiership Rugby. There are five uncapped players named in Ulster's Billy Burns and Tom O’Toole and the Leinster trio … He hails from a farming family in Horeswood and will undoubtedly hope to inspire more youngsters from the area to take up the sport. The Pro14 has been willing to move its final a week earlier in the calendar to accommodate the Lions but the Premiership has repeatedly refused to follow suit and Gatland has already warned that England players who join up late as a result are at a disadvantage when it comes to selecting his Test team. CJ Stander at a Ireland Rugby Press Conference (Image: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane) CJ Stander has already racked up 28 caps for Ireland and one of the first names on the team … It is testament to the rise of Connacht though that they have five players in the squad, with three of those uncapped, while Kieran Marmion (injury) and Quinn Roux could still be involved later in the competion. Clowes was banned from playing as the 1888 team were due to depart in a row over professionalism, but travelled anyway and remained with the team throughout the tour.