Down under.

Ireland will take on Michael Cheika’s Wallabies in a three-Test series this June, and will be hoping to continue where they left off at the Six Nations.

Their Grand Slam win has moved them up to 2nd in the world, and a series win over Australia would no doubt cement that position. We’re also just over a year out from the Rugby World Cup in Japan, so building momentum at this stage of the cycle is key.

In terms of a squad for this summer, we expect head coach Joe Schmidt to bring a very strong one. The likes of Johnny Sexton have already said they want to tour this summer, and there’s absolutely no doubt Schmidt will be going to Australia expecting to win.

That doesn’t mean Schmidt won’t bring any uncapped players however. We reckon we could easily see 3-4 uncapped lads brought to Australia, including the likes of Sam Arnold, Tadhg Beirne and Ross Byrne.

Anyway, here’s our predicted squad. The official squad will be announced later today (or so we’re told.)

Possible Ireland Squad.

Backs (16)

Rob Kearney, Andrew Conway

Keith Earls, Jordan Larmour, Jacob Stockdale, Barry Daly/Alex Wootton/Darren Sweetnam

Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, Sam Arnold*, Robbie Henshaw

Johnny Sexton, Joey Carbery, Ross Byrne*

Conor Murray, Luke McGrath, John Cooney

Forwards (20)

Cian Healy, Jack McGrath, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, John Ryan

Rory Best (captain), James Tracy, Sean Cronin

Devin Toner, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Ultan Dillane

Peter O’Mahony, Dan Leavy, CJ Stander, Rhys Ruddock, Jordi Murphy, Jack Conan