What to make of Andy Farrell's Ireland squad to tour Australia and New Zealand

Nathan Johns· Host0:00

[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the CounterRuck Rugby podcast, brought to you by The Irish Times in partnership with Oak Energy. Took a few days off after no provincial rugby action over the weekend, but of course there was pretty exciting Top 14 and Prem Rugby playoffs over in England and France. But the URC final now takes center stage on Friday. The teams are in, Leinster and Bulls naming their match day 23s. We also have an Ireland squad to discuss as Andy Farrell picks his group that goes to Australia and New Zealand to play Australia, Japan, and of course, the All Blacks later this summer. Lots of injuries, so plenty of interest in terms of who's left standing, and a handful of new faces. Could there be more? We'll, we'll discuss all that very shortly as John O'Sullivan and Gordon Darcy join me to pick through the squad that Andy Farrell has picked, and then Leinster's final against the Bulls. John O'Sullivan, Gordon Darcy, hello. Plenty going on considering it was an off week. Ireland squad is out. I won't read through the whole squad, but, uh, Tadhg Beirne is fit. He missed Munster's run-in. Jack Crowley is not. So Baird, Shane Bolton, Jack Boyle, Jack Crowley, Edwin Hodgbo, Tom Farrell, Mack Hansen, Paddy McCarthy, Calvin Nash, and Andrew Porter are all injured. It makes me think, John, [laughs] much like with Leinster this weekend, who, who's gonna play loosehead? They've gone Billy Bowden's back in, Jeremy Loughman, and it looks like Tom O'Toole is gonna be playing at loosehead. That, that