'If you stay the same, other teams will pass you out' - Sexton says squad depth is key to Ireland's growth

With 37 players in the original Irish squad, a further 12 togging out as part of the A team's preparations, and the injured Iain Henderson and suspended Bundee Aki also involved, there were 51 players in total training at yesterday's Ireland session in Abbotstown.

At least 18 of that group wont make the cut for a 33-man World Cup squad, although it will probably be even higher if you factor in the likes of James Lowe, Andrew Conway and maybe even Keith Earls, who have missed out this month due to injury, but still have plenty of credit in the bank.

Last week, IRFU performance director David Nucifora spoke of the need to build a working depth chart of 50 players, with the summer tour games against the Maori All Blacks, the Emerging Ireland tour and this week's Ireland A game against a New Zealand XV all fitting into that plan.

Yesterday, Ireland captain Johnny Sexton echoed the need for a wide net. If Ireland are to kick on and break their World Cup glass ceiling, their squad has to be deeper than ever.

"Yeah, you've got to keep evolving, you’ve got to keep getting better. If you stay the same, other teams will pass you out," he said, ahead of Saturday's visit of South Africa to the Aviva Stadium.

"And you know, we need to build a real competition for places, so that no one can get comfortable and that is exactly what the coaches are doing. They’re challenging us in how we play the game, they’re challenging us by putting all these extra fixtures in, with the Emerging Ireland tour, the Maori games, now the New Zealand A game, all these guys are getting chances to impress the coaches and to play under the coaches and to put what the coaches want out on the pitch.

"There were 50 players out at training today and I was thinking to