When Joe Schmidt was named as Ireland's head coach in April 2013, one of the first dates he would have penciled into his diary was today. August 31st, 2015 is the deadline for the New Zealander to name his final World Cup squad.
Many former players, pundits and even fans have been trying to come up with their 31 man formula for global domination and among those was former Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll.
The Off the Ball guest presenter wrote on his own website www.brianodriscoll.com his thoughts for the team and picked 14 backs and 17 forwards.
Despite many reports of Ian Madigan being considered as an emergency scrum half to free up a place in the backline, O'Driscoll has picked Issac Boss as back up to Conor Murray and Eoin Reddan.
O'Driscoll's squad reads as follows:
Backs : Rob Kearney, Simon Zebo, Luke Fitzgerald, Tommy Bowe, Dave Kearney, Keith Earls, Jared Payne, Robbie Henshaw, Ian Madigan, Paddy Jackson, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Eoin Reddan, Isaac Boss.
Forwards : Jack McGrath, Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Mike Ross, Nathan White, Rory Best, Sean Cronin, Richardt Strauss, Devin Toner, Paul O’Connell, Donncha Ryan, Iain Henderson, Peter O’Mahoney, Sean O’Brien, Jordi Murphy, Chris Henry, Jamie Heaslip
