O'Kelly a surprise omission from squad

INTERNATIONAL NEWS:IRELAND'S MOST capped player Malcolm O'Kelly has been omitted from a trimmed down 34-man squad from which the team and replacements will be chosen for Ireland's opening November Test match against Canada at Thomond Park next Saturday.

The 34-year-old Leinster secondrow is one of seven players who drop out of the original 41-man training squad announced last Wednesday week. Gavin Duffy (Connacht), Barry Murphy (Munster), Mike Ross (Harlequins), Bob Casey (London Irish), Roger Wilson (Northampton) and Tom Court (Ulster) are the other six players to miss out.

The 91-times capped O'Kelly will be disappointed at his exclusion as a recently-stated goal was to try to become the first player to make 100 Test appearances for Ireland.

His last appearance in the green jersey was against France during last season's Six Nations Championship.

Ireland coach Declan Kidney named four locks, Munster trio Paul O'Connell, Donncha O'Callaghan and Mick O'Driscoll and Ulster's Ryan Caldwell in the 34-man squad, while also including the versatile Donnacha Ryan, who can play in the secondrow or backrow. Caldwell and Ryan are uncapped.

O'Kelly's omission is a surprise not least because of his superb performance during Leinster's Heineken Cup victory over Wasps at the RDS. He was masterful under the restarts that night and even found time for one lung bursting 50-metre run that almost yielded a try. It was a performance that belied any ageist critiques.

The fact Casey, Wilson and Ross were denied the opportunity to attend Ireland's training camp in Limerick this week because of a Premier Rugby League (PRL) directive to the English clubs not to release players was always going to make it difficult for the triumvirate to survive the cull.

The fourth English-based player who could not travel, Leicester's Geordan Murphy, has been named in the Irish squad.

Kidney has named six uncapped players, Jonathan Sexton, Keith Earls, Ian Dowling, Caldwell, Cian Healy and Ryan. Court might consider himself a little unfortunate as he can play both sides of the frontrow.

To accommodate the presence of some promising young players Duffy and Murphy lost out behind the scrum. Earls has been in largely brilliant form this season, while Dowling is rewarded for his consistent excellence with Munster.

The priority for the six uncapped players will be to survive the next cull when the match squad for the Canadian game is announced next Tuesday.

The Ireland squad will convene at their Killiney Castle base tonight ahead of training sessions on Monday and Tuesday before decamping to Limerick. Canada play Portugal in Lisbon today (5pm), only the second time ever that the two sides have met. Canadian coach Kieran Crowley has fielded a young side but by the time his squad arrives in Ireland they will be bolstered by an additional seven front-line players, who were unable to secure a release from their respective clubs for the Portuguese match.

Ireland 34-man squad

Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), Ian Dowling (Shannon, Munster), Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College, Leinster), Keith Earls (Young Munster, Munster), Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College, Leinster), Shane Horgan (Boyne, Leinster), Robert Kearney (UCD, Leinster), Geordan Murphy (Leicester), Brian O'Driscoll (UCD, Leinster, capt), Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution, Munster), Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin, Munster), Eoin Reddan (Wasps), Jonathan Sexton (St Mary's College, Leinster), Peter Stringer (Shannon, Munster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena, Ulster), Paddy Wallace (Ballymena, Ulster), Rory Best (Banbridge, Ulster), Tony Buckley (Shannon, Munster), Ryan Caldwell (Dungannon, Ulster), Stephen Ferris (Dungannon, Ulster), Jerry Flannery (Shannon, Munster), John Hayes (Bruff, Munster), Cian Healy (Clontarf, Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Naas, Leinster), Marcus Horan (Shannon, Munster), Bernard Jackman (Clontarf, Leinster), Shane Jennings (St Mary's College, Leinster), Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution, Munster), Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution, Munster), Paul O'Connell (Young Munster, Munster), Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution, Munster), Alan Quinlan (Shannon, Munster), Donnacha Ryan (Shannon, Munster), David Wallace (Garryowen, Munster).