International Rules Squad announcementIreland manager Seán Boylan yesterday finally announced his panel for the upcoming International Rules series and sprang a mild surprise by naming Kerry's Darragh Ó Sé, who hadn't featured in the provisional selections to date and who was married two weeks ago, in the standby panel for Friday's first Test.

Overall, it is an experienced selection with 14 of the 25 players named having played at this level before, including eight who have been capped but didn't play in last year's series: captain Kieran McGeeney, vice-captain Tadhg Kennelly, Joe Bergin, Alan Brogan, Dermot Earley, Paul Galvin, Steven McDonnell and Shane Ryan.

The six players who have been let go since last week are: Kerry's Brendan Guiney, Cork pair Ger Spillane and Donncha O'Connor, Derry's Paddy Bradley, Johnny McCarthy of Limerick and Down's Michael Walsh. Most of those were omitted because of fitness problems.

Des Dolan, one of Ireland's most experienced and prolific forwards has been placed on the standby panel. Boylan denied that this was a ruse in response to his opposite number Kevin Sheedy's mentioning the player as a key opponent.

"If you look at Dessie's record in this series, he's been fantastic for getting scores and it would have no bearing what Kevin might be thinking about it. But you have to go with the form as demonstrated but Dessie's come an awful long way in a short space of time."

Leading the way in terms of experience is Derry defender Seán Martin Lockhart, who along with captain McGeeney is one of only two survivors from the original series since the resumption of the international project in 1998.

Lockhart will become the most capped player of all time assuming he plays in at least one of the forthcoming Tests, which will push his total to 15 or 16, ahead of Offaly's Ciarán McManus with whom he is currently tied on 14 and who isn't playing this year.

All told, 11 counties are represented, with Longford securing a first cap since Dessie Barry in 1990 with the call-up of Paul Barden.

Kerry is the best represented county with five players, Kennelly, Aidan O'Mahony, Marc Ó Sé, Kieran Donaghy and Paul Galvin on the panel and Darragh Ó Sé on standby.

The players trained in Galway's Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening and Boylan was pleased with the workout, telling yesterday's media conference that a big emphasis had been on the international tackle.

"Our lads would be so used to tackling by shadowing," said the manager, "so they don't have to make a tackle and our players, particularly forwards, when they have the ball, are not used to being tackled in that way when shooting which can make it more difficult.

"That aspect of the game is much more natural to the Australians than it is to our lads.

"When you make a high catch, it's not just a high catch - it's three things: the catch, you move back and then deliver the ball. Even though it's something we've talked about rewarding in our own game it changes the emphasis.

"If you were to take one step forward, as you do in this game, someone would wrap their arms around you and you're on the deck."

Shay McGuinness, the Skerries and Irish Colleges rugby coach, attended some of the sessions to instruct in the technique of the tackle.

Boylan also revealed that some players were experiencing difficulties in getting time off work and as a result the Ireland team would not be gathering in Galway until Thursday of this week.

"A lot of the problems that lads have is getting off work. Take for instance the lads from Kerry: they would have had a few days off around the All-Ireland and so on. You can only get so much grace in the workplace but it certainly would have been nice to have had them for longer."

Asked for his reaction to reports that the Australians had managed to spy on Ireland's preparations during the training weekend in Toulouse, Boylan was unconcerned.

"We're very serious about it but we're in the game for fun."

According to Croke Park over 55,000 tickets have been requested for the second Test in Dublin on Sunday week. With the first Test being held outside of the capital for the first time since 1984, there has been added demand for the second Test, which is now well on course to break the record set in Croke Park four years ago when 71,521 attended the second Test.

Capacity for Sunday week has been set at a reduced 78,700 because of refurbishment work.

Ireland squad

Kieran McGeeney (capt, Armagh, 8 caps)

Tadhg Kennelly (Vice capt, Sydney Swans & Kerry. 6 caps)

Paul Barden (Longford, new cap)

Colm Begley (Brisbane Lions & Laois, new cap)

Joe Bergin (Galway, 6 caps)

Alan Brogan (Dublin, 2 caps)

Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone, 4 caps)

Ronan Clarke (Armagh, 2 caps)

Brendan Coulter (Down, 6 caps)

Kieran Donaghy (Kerry, new cap)

Dermot Early (Kildare, 6 caps)

Kieran Fitzgerald (Galway, new cap)

Paul Galvin (Kerry, 2 caps)

Tom Kelly (Laois, 5 caps)

Karl Lacey (Donegal, new cap)

Seán Martin Lockhart (Derry, 14 caps)

Stephen McDonnell (Armagh, 3 caps)

Anthony Moyles (Meath, new cap)

Nicholas Murphy (Cork, new cap)

Aidan O'Mahony (Kerry, new cap)

Marc Ó Sé (Kerry, new cap)

Alan Quirke (Cork, new cap)

Kevin Reilly (Meath, new cap)

Shane Ryan (Dublin, 2 caps)

Stand-by: Dessie Dolan (Westmeath, 8 caps) Stephen O'Neill (Tyrone, 2 caps), Darragh Ó Sé (Kerry, 4 caps)