A Combined Four Irish Provinces XV

What would an XV of all four provinces looks like?

The four provinces of Ireland have been much improved this season, all getting off to good starts after a number of poor campaigns last year. Their form has reflected on the national side with Ireland recording one of their best Novemeber series in history.

What would a starting line-up look like however if you put all four of them together? Would it be just Irish players? We’ve had a go and our answer is no. When you’ve got the likes of Charles Piutau and Bundee Aki floating around, you can’t simply ignore them.

The good news however is those three are the only non-Irish internationals that would make the squad, which is a testament to the form the Ireland players are currently in. The same argument can be made that the provinces just don’t have a lot of world-class foreign talent in their ranks anymore, which is fair, but not taking away from the Irish players-there’s still some fierce competition there.

What do you think of this XV? Where would you make changes?

Backs

15. Charles Piutau (Ulster)
14. Isa Nacewa (Leinster)
13. Bundee Aki (Connacht)
12. Robbie Henshaw (Leinster)
11. Simon Zebo (Munster)
10. Johnny Sexton (Leinster)
9. Conor Murray (Munster)

Forwards

8. Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)
7. Sean O’Brien (Leinster)
6. CJ Stander (Munster)
5. Devin Toner (Leinster)
4. Iain Henderson (Ulster)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster)
2. Rory Best (Ulster)
1. Jack McGrath (Leinster)