RUGBY UNION: Five Ulster players in Ireland squad for tour of Australia

Rory Best, Rob Herring, Iain Henderson, John Cooney and Jacob Stockdale have all been included in the 32 man squad.

The Ireland team will face Australia in three tests on June 9 in Brisbane, June 16 in Melbourne and June 23 in Sydney.

Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt commented: “This has probably been the most difficult selection process for the coaching group to date.

“We sat down on Monday morning to review the last pieces of footage and to discuss the balance and combinations that we felt we might need in Australia.

“We made the final decisions which included a number of very tough calls and some players are incredibly unlucky to miss out on selection. “Over the past couple of months the national coaches have spent time in the provinces and been in communication with the provincial coaches who have done a super job in managing the players across the season.

“The coaching group are excited by the challenge that this three Test tour will present and from talking to the players we get a sense that they too are excited about going on Tour and testing themselves against one of the best sides in the world in their own backyard.”