Autumn Internationals: Ireland squad announced

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Joe Schmidt has called up six Ulstermen for the Autumn tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina that take place in November.

Schmidt keeps his faith in captain Rory Best despite only making his first appearance of the season against La Rochelle while Rob Herring, Iain Henderson, Kieran Treadwell, Stuart McCloskey and Jacob Stockdale are rewarded for their fine starts to the season.

Former Ulsterman Chris Farrell, now at Munster, is set to make his international debut, while Jared Payne misses the cut as he is still recovering from a series of headaches picked up on the Lions’ Tour. Bowe and Trimble are ominous omissions.

Overall, Joe Schmidt has selected a relatively inexperienced squad, 23 of the 38 players have less than 20 caps for Ireland and 19 have ten caps or less. In the backline, only Keith Earls, Rob Kearney, Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray have 30+ caps and will bring experience to the four uncapped players.

The selection of the Kearney brothers has sparked a bit of controversy as has . . .

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