By Cathal Dervan

TOMMY Bowe, Rob Kearney, Barry Murphy, Jerry Flannery, Mick O’Driscoll and Trevor Hogan are all in a 35 man Irish squad for the forthcoming Six Nations championship.

Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris was not considered due to his hand injury, while Munster back row Alan Quinlan was not considered due to suspension.

Coach Eddie O’Sullivan said, “The championship is a long and hard tournament that will always test your resources, so I felt that we needed to increase our squad to 35 to give us some extra cover.

“We have a good injury profile at the moment and with the return of players from injury, such as Tommy Bowe and Jerry Flannery as well as the other additions to the squad, it will push up the competition levels. While there are not many changes from November, the squad is always selected on form and this group reflects that.

“The Six Nations Championship is our bread and butter tournament and is the one in which we always want to do well. We were pleased with how the Guinness Autumn Series went, but this tournament is a step up and we will have to raise our performances another level.

“An away trip to the Millennium Stadium to play Wales is one of the toughest openings you could get at this moment in time and all we will be focusing on is trying to get the right performance against an excellent Welsh team.”

Ireland squad: Forwards — Neil Best, Rory Best, Simon Best, Simon Easterby, Jerry Flannery, Keith Gleeson, John Hayes, Jamie Heaslip, Trevor Hogan, Marcus Horan, Denis Leamy, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, Mick O’Driscoll, Malcolm O’Kelly, Frankie Sheahan, David Wallace, Bryan Young.

Backs — Isaac Boss, Tommy Bowe, Girvan Dempsey, Gordon D’Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald, Shane Horgan, Denis Hickie, Robert Kearney, John Kelly, Barry Murphy, Geordan Murphy, Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Eoin Reddan, Peter Stringer, Andrew Trimble, Paddy Wallace.