Plenty of Tipperary interest to keep an eye on ahead of the start of the Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup in France gets underway later this evening starting with the clash of New Zealand and France, while Ireland's first game will take place on Saturday against Romania, but even on this one of the biggest world stages, there is plenty of Tipperary connections to some of the team's participating.

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell named a strong starting 15 for the first game against the Romanians, but one surprise inclusion in the team is in the second row, with Joe McCarthy making his World Cup debut at number five.

22-year-old McCarthy from Cork currently plays for Leinster but there is Tipperary blood in his veins through his mother. Joe is a son of Paula Fogarty from Cashel and Joe McCarthy from Cork. His grandparents were the late Andy and Angela Fogarty.

Also, there is a member of the Irish backroom team from the Premier County in the form of John Fogarty from Cashel, who is the scrum coach for the current world number one team.

Tadgh Beirne and more recently Jimmy O'Brien are two other current Irish internationals with strong Cahir and Clonmel connections respectively.

There are still more Tipperary connections in the upcoming tournament, this time away from the Ireland squad with Ben Healy from Kilruane outside Nenagh in North Tipperary representing Scotland - who will also be in Ireland's group in the competition.

While the former Nenagh Ormond and Munster player is not named on the matchday squad for the Scots' opening game against South Africa on Sunday, he will likely see game time over the course of the group stages.