Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says he's not reading too much into the Irish provinces' disappointing end to the rugby season, ahead of the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
Farrell revealed his 40-man squad this morning, with five uncapped players among the group; Leinster trio Ciarán Frawley, Jimmy O'Brien and Joe McCarthy, Munster's Jeremy Loughman and Connacht's Cian Prendergast.
The squad are currently gathering at the IRFU high performance facility in Abbotstown for a three-day mini-camp, before they depart for New Zealand next week, ahead of their opening match against the Maori All Blacks on Wednesday 29 June.
The mood around Irish rugby has dampened in the last couple of weeks after a disappointing end to the season for the provinces, with Leinster and Ulster edged out in the URC semi-finals last week.
In both games, as well as Leinster's Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle, the game was won and lost by physicality and a dominant setpiece, and despite a combined 27 of the 40 players coming from those two provinces, Farrell says he's not overly concerned about the common trend of those recent defeats.
"We're Ireland, we're our own team," the head coach said.
"We play our own way and we've come up against big teams before and been unbelievably physical.
"Physicality is not just about fronting up, it's how you play the game and how you get opportunities to create space to be able to get over the gainline and be able to be aggressive in the right parts of the game.
"I think we've done pretty well of late in that type of scenario, so no, it doesn't affect us at all."
And Farrell says he's taking the positives from having extra access to his Leinster and Ulster players.
"But what this three-day camp is, is making sure that we get cohesive, that we start enjoying each other's company and the relationships that we've built, we need to build them even stronger in the next four weeks.
"You can look at it both ways. If Leinster and Ulster were to have both played in the final, you could say that they got game time and are match fit, or you could say we've got the players now, we've got a three-day camp, we're a little bit ahead of the curve getting onto the plane and we've got a fit squad.
"So I suppose you can take it either way."
As is natural with Irish squads, those not selected are spoken of as much of those who are selected. Of those unavailable, Rónan Kelleher, Andrew Conway and Robert Baloucoune are all injured, with the latter expected to be out for up to six weeks due to the hip injury he suffered in Ulster's URC semi-final loss against the Stormers.
"We've picked a 40-man squad which is the biggest squad that we've picked because of the schedule. They know - the players who have missed out, and the injured players, and the guys who have been picked - that this is the opportunity to show what they're about under extreme pressure, to see whether they can perform at the highest level, and see whether they earn the right to carry on into next year which is a World Cup year."
There are also in-form players who have been left disappointed at missing the cut, with Ross Molony, Stuart McCloskey and Jack O'Donoghue (below) all close to making the squad.
And while Farrell says he understands the clamour for those who have missed out, the head coach says none of his 40-man squad have been picked without merit.
"Of course, everyone is in contention, especially the guys who are playing well and Jack [O'Donoghue] is obviously one of them. He's in a very competitive position, and you look across at who has been selected, I don't think you could complain about any of those who have been selected either.
"They're conversations that have been happening over the last few days, and like always it's tough because they all wanted to make the tour. It was all 100% sure of their goals in the season, to perform well, to get on this tour because they can see what it means to Irish rugby. They want to be part of it.
"We've picked a 40-man squad which is the biggest squad that we've picked because of the schedule. They know - the players who have missed out, and the injured players, and the guys who have been picked - that this is the opportunity to show what they're about under extreme pressure, to see whether they can perform at the highest level, and see whether they earn the right to carry on into next year which is a World Cup year.
"We're delighted, we're so excited about taking this squad as a group of 40 to probably the hardest place in world rugby to go to, and find out about ourselves. This is a historic tour that will probably never be done again, certainly with how we've structured the tour.
With rugby moving towards a global calendar in the coming years, it's likely the traditional Test series will become extinct in the near future, aside from in a Lions year.
And with just eight of the 40-man squad having experienced a Test series in New Zealand, Farrell says he and his group are set to learn some valuable lessons over the summer.
"Maybe Ireland will never get to play a three-game Test series out there again. This is the ultimate, we're talking about building now towards a World Cup, what you want to do in those type of circumstances is test yourself, and it doesn't get any tougher that coming to New Zealand and playing in their backyard for three Test matches," he added.
"Where we've not been before, that's the fact. Our last performance against them, or any good performance you've seen over the last 18 months to two years, we need to be better than that.
"It's different over there, and that's why touring for these lads is so important. We've missed it. We've lads on over 20 caps that have never toured.
"Walking around Auckland or Wellington or Dunedin, it's not like walking down Ballsbridge and people winding the window down and saying how good you are.
"This is completely different. This is proper international rugby that doesn't get any better and it's exactly what we want at this point in time."
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