Robert Baloucoune, Caolin Blade and Shane Daly among 35-man Emerging Ireland squad

A 35-man Emerging Ireland squad has been named to travel to South Africa in late September.

Ireland's development team will have a three-day camp in the IRFU's high performance centre in Dublin before flying to Bloemfontein to play against three Currie Cup sides - the Griquas, Pumas and Cheetahs - in the Toyota Challenge.

The squad contains four capped players Robert Baloucoune (2 caps), Caolin Blade (1), Shane Daly (2) and Max Deegan (1) and three players who featured against the Māori All Blacks during the summer: Ciaran Frawley, Joe McCarthy and Cian Prendergast.

Jamie Osborne and Tom Ahern have both trained with the senior Ireland squad as development players.

Eight players featured in the Ireland U20 side that won a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2019 – Tom Clarkson, Brian Deeny, Jake Flannery, John Hodnett, Michael Milne, Scott Penny, Callum Reid and Dylan Tierney-Martin.

2022 U20 Six Nations Grand Slam winners James Culhane and Chay Mullins are included. Culhane was named U20 Player of the Tournament while Mullins has gone on to win a bronze medal at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town.

Andrew Smith also played for Ireland 7s in last weekend Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa. The former Ireland U20 has played in seven World Series tournaments and won an Energia AIL title with Clontarf this year.

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David Nucifora, IRFU performance director, said: "This Emerging Ireland tour is of vital strategic importance in a Rugby World Cup year.

"It will put some stress on our player resources