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O'Sullivan calls up trio for campaign

Wyn Griffiths
Wednesday 09 January 2002 01:00 GMT
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Ireland's new management team have called three new faces into a 43-man training squad to prepare for the Six Nations' Championship.</p>The Munster lock Paul O'Connell, the Leinster flanker Keith Gleeson and Ulster's Paddy Wallace are the new men and will join up with the rest of the squad for the first training session at the University of Limerick on Sunday.</p>The new coach, Eddie O'Sullivan, who replaced Warren Gatland last month, and his assistants, the Munster management duo of Declan Kidney and Niall O'Donovan, as well as the former rugby league player Mick Ford, begin their reign in charge of the national team against Wales in Dublin on Sunday, 3 February.</p>O'Sullivan and his selectors have omitted two previous regulars, the Leinster back-row Trevor Brennan and the Munster back Jeremy Staunton.</p>The delay of the surgery on the shoulder of the Springboks captain, Bob Skinstad, has infuriated his club coach in South Africa. Skinstad suffered the injury in November against England, but was only operated on yesterday in Cape Town. The Stormers coach, Gert Smal, will be without his No 8 for the first four games of the Super 12 competition. Smal said: "We did everything we could when he got back from the tour to try to find out precisely what was wrong and how long he would be out of action. But hell, there is only so much you can do if the player doesn't want to take any action himself.</p>"Now we sit with the situation of losing him for a large chunk of the season. He could have been almost healed if he went for the operation immediately."</p>Skinstad's injury is the fourth big injury blow for the Stormers. The club have also lost the fly-half Chris Rossouw (shoulder), the centre Robbie Fleck (ankle), and the props Rob Kempson (neck) and Morne van der Merwe (back).</p>IRELAND TRAINING SQUAD (for 2002 Lloyds TSB Six Nations 'Championship): Forwards: Emmet Byrne (St Mary's College), Shane Byrne (Blackrock College), Peter Clohessy (Young Munster), Reggie Corrigan (Lansdowne), Victor Costello (St Mary's College), Jeremy Davidson (Dungannon), Kieron Dawson (London Irish), Simon Easterby (Llanelli), Anthony Foley (Shannon), Mick Galwey (Shannon), Keith Gleeson (St Mary's College), John Hayes (Shannon), Marcus Horan (Shannon), Gary Longwell (Ballymena), Eric Miller (Terenure College), Malcolm O'Kelly (St Mary's College), Paul O'Connell (Young Munster), Alan Quinlan (Shannon), Frank Sheehan (Cork Constitution), David Wallace (Garryowen), Paul Wallace (Blackrock College), Keith Wood (Harlequins). Backs: Jonathan Bell (Dungannon), Paul Burke (Harlequins), Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College), Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne), Neil Doak (Ballymena), Guy Easterby (Llanelli), Rob Henderson (Young Munster), Denis Hickie (St Mary's College), Anthony Horgan (Cork Constitution), Shane Horgan (Lansdowne), Tyrone Howe (Dungannon), David Humphreys (Dungannon), John Kelly (Cork Constitution), Kevin Maggs (Bath), Mike Mullins (Young Munster), Geordan Murphy (Leicester), Brian O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution), Brian O'Meara (Cork Constitution), Peter Stringer (Cork Constitution), Paddy Wallace (Ballymena). </p>

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