Murphy and Murray in Irish squad

Conor Murray has been named in Ireland's World Cup squad Munster scrum-half Conor Murray and Leicester full-back Geordan Murphy have won places in Ireland's World Cup squad.

Murphy has been included after Felix Jones was ruled out with an ankle injury sustained in Saturday's match against France.

Murray is selected at the expense of provincial team-mate Tomas O'Leary.

Lions winger Luke Fitzgerald, who would have been seen as an automatic selection a year ago, has missed out.

Limerick man Murray, who made his only Test appearance against France in Bordeaux nine days ago, travels with fellow scrum-halves Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss.

O'Leary was thought to be coach Declan Kidney's first choice in the position but has paid the price for his poor display in Saturday's 26-22 defeat by the French in Dublin.

Luke Fitzgerald has been left out of Ireland's squad

Murphy's hopes of inclusion looked slim until the Jones injury narrowed the options of Kidney who chose the 33-year-old as cover for first choice full-back Rob Kearney.

Four years ago Murphy made one appearance at the World Cup in France, while in 2003 he missed out after breaking his leg on the eve of the squad announcement.

"Geordan - isn't that a real case of the highs and lows of sport?" said Kidney.

"I was involved eight years ago when Geordan broke his leg in Edinburgh. Now he gets his opportunity here too.

"He is an experienced man and brings a lot off the pitch as well as on it.

"We went through a situation in the Six Nations when Geordan, Rob and Felix were all injured. Two of the three are fit now.

"It is a specialist position and you need to know what you are doing, especially at this level."

Ireland coach Declan Kidney names his 30 man squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup

Alongside O'Leary, Fitzgerald is another big-name casualty who has also suffered because of a loss of form.

Fitzgerald played well as a second-half substitute against France in Dublin, but it was not enough to convince Kidney he should travel.

Most of the squad of 16 forwards and 14 backs picked itself.

Only four props will travel, with Tony Buckley securing the last available place, beating off competition from John Hayes and Marcus Horan.

Donnacha Ryan travels as the fourth lock but also offers back row cover, while Stephen Ferris features after making his first appearance since January on Saturday.

Andrew Trimble's fine form during the summer is rewarded and his rival wing Tommy Bowe is present despite not having played this month because of a foot injury.

Ireland squad: R Best (Ulster), I Boss (Leinster), T Bowe (Ospreys), T Buckley (Sale), T Court (Ulster), S Cronin (Leinster), L Cullen (Leinster), G D'Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), J Flannery (Munster), C Healy (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster), R Kearney (Leinster), D Leamy (Munster), F McFadden (Leinster), G Murphy (Leicester), C Murray (Munster), S O'Brien (Leinster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), R O'Gara (Munster), E Reddan (Leinster), M Ross (Leinster), D Ryan (Munster), J Sexton (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster), P Wallace (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster).

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Murray slumps to defeat on return

Murray played in Rotterdam having initially suggested he wanted a breakAndy Murray lost to Marcos Baghdatis at the World Tennis Tournament in his first game since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final.

Less than two weeks since his third Grand Slam final loss, world number five Murray was blown away 6-4 6-1 by the Cypriot in just over an hour.

The second-seeded Scot led 3-0 with two service breaks but went into free-fall.

Baghdatis broke Murray three times to win the first set and never looked back as he wrapped up a comfortable victory.

The world number 20 will next play Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the second round in Rotterdam after seeing off Florian Mayer.

Murray may have been making his first indoor appearance for three months, but it was, more significantly, a chance to begin the process of easing the pain of a straight-sets defeat by Serbia's Djokovic in Melbourne on 30 January.

The 23-year-old had intimated he would take a lengthy sabbatical and instead opted to compete in the Netherlands in a tournament he won two years ago.

Despite his lack of preparation, Murray began his first-round encounter against the unseeded but lively Baghdatis in sparkling fashion.

Highlights - Djokovic ends Murray's slam dream in Australian Open final

Two breaks of serve had Murray cruising at 3-0, and although the Cypriot, runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open, fought back with a break of his own, Britain's number one still looked favourite after steadying the ship at 4-2.

But then the wheels fell off as the 25-year-old secured the first set in 39 minutes with four games on the bounce.

The first three games of the second set went with serve, only for Baghdatis, who beat Murray at Wimbledon in 2006, to turn on the style and swiftly come through to seal his second-round spot with the minimum of fuss.

It is not the end of Murray's participation in Rotterdam this week as he and brother Jamie will be involved in the doubles after they were handed a wildcard having initially been overlooked.

Djokovic was ruled out of the World Tennis Tournament because of a shoulder injury and is still needing another week's rest before playing again.

The new Australian Open champion was replaced as top seed by Swede Robin Soderling, who began his defence of the Dutch title with an easy win in less than hour over local favourite Robin Haase.

Two second round results on Wednesday included a defeat for fifth-ranked Jurgen Melzer by unseeded Croat Marin Cilic, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to work hard to beat France's Michael Llodra 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Victory for the eighth seeded Tsonga, who lost the 2008 Australian Open final to Djokovic, came a day after he declared the era of domination by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal over.

"Federer and Nadal are not alone at the top of the rankings any more," said Tsonga. "Maybe on clay, Nadal's victories are still the same, but not on other surfaces.

"Djokovic and Murray are beating Nadal and Federer very often, all the players are improving their games. It's not just about Nadal and Federer any more."

Other first-round results:
Feliciano Lopez (Spa) bt Florian Mayer (Ger) 6-3 6-4
Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) bt Marcel Granollers (Spa) 6-2 7-6 (8-6)
Benoit Paire (Fra) bt Gilles Simon (Fra) 6-2 2-6 6-3
Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Mischa Zverev (Ger) 6-2 6-4
Michael Llodra (Fra) bt Nikolay Davydenko (Rus) 6-3 7-6 (7-4)
Viktor Troicki (Ser) bt Thomas Schoorel (Ned) 6-2 7-6 (7-1)
Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Andrey Golubev (Kaz) 6-4 7-5
Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt Jesse Huta Galung (Ned) 6-4 6-4
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt Grigor Dimitro (Bul) 6-4 6-4
Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) 6-1 6-2
Thiemo de Bakker (Ned) bt Philipp Petzschner (Ger) 6-4 0-6 6-1
Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt 3-David Ferrer (Spa) 6-3 6-4
Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) beat Lu Yen-Hsun (Tai) 6-4 7-6 (7-5)
Robin Soderling (Swe) bt Robin Haase (Ned) 6-3 6-2
Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) beat Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

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