There are 24 players named in the Ireland senior squad, with six additional up-and-coming players named who will join the first week of Ireland camp in Limerick to train with the squad.

The 22-man O2 Ireland Wolfhounds squad includes several uncapped players as well as full internationals. The Ireland squad, from which the team to play Wales will be selected, will be announced on Monday, January 30 after the Wolfhounds game against the England Saxons.

Commenting on the announcement, Ireland head coach Declan Kidney said: "The Wolfhounds game gives myself and the other coaches one final chance to give games to players to see possible options before we settle on our matchday 22 for the opening game of the Championship.

"It also gives us the opportunity to have a closer look in training at some of the younger players, rather than bringing in more experienced players, who are very much still in the frame for selection.

"There have been some strong performances by players with the provinces going really well. It always gives the squad a good boost when we have teams with players playing well in Europe before we step back up into the international scene."

Talking about the start of the RBS 6 Nations, Kidney added: "It's a new tournament for us and for everybody involved, so irrespective of the highs and lows of the World Cup, it is a fresh and exciting challenge for us.

"The tournament begins what is big year for us, with a three Test tour to New Zealand to come in June and ranking points all important for the Rugby World Cup in 2015, but the Six Nations always stands out as high point."

IRELAND Training Squad (2012 RBS 6 Nations):

Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)
Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

Additional Players -

Ian Nagle (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
Tiernan O'Halloran (Galwegians/Connacht) *
Paddy McAllister (Ballynahinch/Ulster)*
Andrew Conway (Blackrock College/Leinster) *
Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster) *

O2 IRELAND WOLFHOUNDS Squad (v England Saxons):

Stephen Archer (Cork Constitution/Munster) *
Isaac Boss (Terenure College/Leinster)
Gavin Duffy (Galwegians/Connacht)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)
Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster)
David Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster) *
Ian Keatley (Young Munster/Munster)
Ronan Loughney (Galwegians/Connacht) *
Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster) *
Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
Kevin McLaughlin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
John Muldoon (Galwegians/Connacht)
Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
Eoin O'Malley (Old Belvedere/Leinster) *
Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
Mike Sherry (Garryowen/Munster) *
Nevin Spence (Ballynahinch/Ulster) *
Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)
Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster)
Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht) *

Not considered due to injury: Brian O'Driscoll, David Wallace, Darren Cave, Felix Jones, Jerry Flannery, Eoin Griffin *, Denis Leamy, Niall Ronan.

* Denotes uncapped player

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The Leicester full-back, who will come up against Ulster in round five of the Heineken Cup on Friday, will be looking to impress after holding talks with the Ireland coach about his availability.

The 33-year-old was expected to retire after the World Cup quarter-final defeat to Wales, but has thrown his hat in the ring ahead of the rematch in Dublin on February 5.

"I've spoken with Declan and we thrashed it out,” said Murphy, who has won 74 international caps.

“I didn't want to be one of those players who retired and then came back. I'm not looking at achieving a lot by holding a bag for a week or two.

"I suppose I'm on standby really. I said I'd hang around for another few months at least. But if there are any injuries, I'd be happy to come in and be a part of a match-day 22 or 23.”

One player who will be missing for the Six Nations is Munster back row Denis Leamy, who has gone under the knife to correct a long-standing hip problem.

LEINSTER will take a wait-and-see approach to injuries for Jonathan Sexton (hamstring) and Gordon D'Arcy (ribs) ahead of their trip to Glasgow Warriors next Sunday.

D'Arcy is thought to be the more serious of the two. He had a scan yesterday to diagnose the seriousness of his problem from a bang on the ribcage in the 23-19 PRO12 League win over Cardiff Blues on Saturday.

HOME

Needless to say, Leinster are already short of Brian O'Driscoll in this area. It is just as well coach Joe Schmidt had the confidence to start Eoin O'Malley and Fergus McFadden at home to Bath in the fourth round of the competition.

More importantly, tactically, the absence of out-half Sexton would leave a monster hole in experience and game-management in Scotland, an area where understudy Ian Madigan still struggles.

Glasgow were just one of three of the top five PRO12 clubs to lose at the weekend. They were edged out 16-14 at the Scarlets, the Ospreys fell to the Dragons 21-20 and Cardiff could not reel in Leinster.

All of this means Leinster have stretched their advantage at the head of affairs to nine points from the Ospreys, with Munster moving into third with their bonus-point defeat of Treviso and the Warriors in the final play-off place.

That written, the Heineken Cup is a different competition. It requires another mentality for the consequent lift in intensity and focus.

In Pool Three, the champions hold a six-point advantage over Glasgow, with the knowledge that a victory in Scotland will almost guarantee them a quarter-final berth, given that Montpellier will be last on the list at the RDS.

HUNT

On the other hand, Glasgow are still in the hunt for the knockout phases and an upset over Leinster will leave them with everything to play for at Bath in the final round.

"It is a huge game for us next week," said Leinster manager Guy Easterby. "We do have the mantra of 'take it one game at a time'. It is massive. They are going into it off a loss to the Scarlets.

"We also realise we are going to have to really up our game. It is Europe. Glasgow, in fairness to them, are playing very well at Firhill," added Easterby.

"They are a really difficult proposition there. Our minds will be focused solely on Glasgow. We are going to have to prepare very well. It won't be easy over there."

Certainly, Leinster will have plenty to mull over from their patchy performance against Cardiff. They started like a house on fire, Sean O'Brien and Rob Kearney burning up the ground for converted tries in the first 10 minutes.

The old one-two between O'Brien and Jamie Heaslip tore Cardiff apart for O'Brien to lunge for the line in the sixth minute.

Then, Sean Cronin's inside slide-rule pass enabled Kearney to skirt through the first line and around the despairing grasp of Welshman Leigh Halfpenny.

From there, captain-for-the-night Heaslip had to help absorb a second-half Cardiff recovery to leave the score poised at 20-19 before Fergus McFadden sealed victory with a penalty in the 67th minute.

"When we had to defend we did," remarked Easterby. "It showed the character of the team. We didn't have a lot of field position or a lot of ball at all in the second-half.

"We rode our luck a little. At the same time, we showed there are positives to be taken from this performance. We came to Cardiff -- they have a game in hand on us -- and took home four points.

"That is not an easy thing to do. That was a great result. There are things we need to work on. Going to Glasgow, we know we need to improve. We know that."

- Des Berry

The Leinster squad trained in UCD on Monday afternoon ahead of Sunday's Round 5 Heineken Cup encounter against Glasgow Warriors in Firhill (KO: 12.45pm) with a number of players set to return to the panel after missing the 23-19 victory in Cardiff on Saturday...

Amongst the players set to return to contention are Leo Cullen, Luke Fitzgerald, Shane Jennings, Ian Madigan, Eoin O'Malley, Rhys Ruddock and Richardt Strauss who were each given a rest, while Damian Browne (illness) should also be in the frame after his late withdrawal from the Cardiff game.

 
It is thought that Ireland duo Gordon D’Arcy (ribs) – who requires one more try to become only the fifth player to reach 25 Heineken Cup tries - and Jonathan Sexton (cramp) who were both withdrawn as precautions during the match will also be available. Centre D’Arcy is set to be further monitored this week ahead of the Friday lunchtime team announcement.

 Sexton, meanwhile, is the competition’s joint top scorer so far this year with 60 points.

 The win in the Welsh capital marked Mullingar second row Mark Flanagan’s first competitive start for the province when he locked down, somewhat fittingly, alongside his cousin Devin Toner.

 The Official Leinster Supporters Club (OLSC), in association with Bank of Ireland, have published an away guide for the several hundred supporters travelling to Glasgow this weekend which can be downloaded from www.leinsterrugby.ie this week.

 Meanwhile, there are less than 100 tickets now remaining for the final Round 6 game against Montpellier in the RDS on Saturday week, 21st January. With the game set to be a sell out, supporters can still purchase tickets from www.leinsterrugby.ie, the Leinster Rugby Store (Donnybrook), Spar (Donnybrook) and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

Ireland back-row Denis Leamy will miss the 2012 Six Nations with a hip injury.

The 30-year-old is likely to be out for up to four months as he undergoes the surgeon's knife to rectify the niggling injury. Munster coach Tony McGahan confirmed the diagnosis saying: "Denis will be out probably for four months. He will have an operation, and is getting it finalised."

Leamy has only appeared seven times for the Celtic league champions this season but featured for Ireland during the 2011 World Cup. And McGahan - who has called on Peter O'Mahony frequently this term - admits that he may look to bring in another face to bolster the back-row division at Thomond Park.

"We will have to look at the numbers - we have registration to close on five or six at five o'clock on Tuesday and then we have an opportunity after that deadline if we get through to the quarter-finals," McGahan said. "But we still have a few guys like David Wallace and Felix Jones to come back into the squad so that immediately eats up two places already.

"We have some good back-rowers here in the club so we haven't really discussed that."

And in related news, Ireland have turned down the opportunity to play midweek matches while on tour in New Zealand in the summer. The New Zealand Rugby Union had hoped that Declan Kidney's men would face the Maori's and a Super Rugby side. But an IRFU spokesman has dismissed the notion.

"It's for logistical as well as playing reasons," an IRFU spokesman said last week. "We would have had to move around to play the midweek games and we want to focus on the Test series."

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