A host of fringe players will get the chance to make their World Cup claim in Saturday's opening World Cup warm-up against Italy.
Joe Schmidt plans to return to Dublin in time for the Aviva Stadium encounter after spending several days in New Zealand for a family bereavement.
In the head coach's absence, Andy Farrell has been running preparations at Carton House ahead of the Azzurri clash.
"On behalf of the team, I'd like to pass on our condolences to Joe and his wider family," said scrum coach Greg Feek.
"He'll be back at some stage near the end of the week.
"Joe has things in place and that includes the management, particularly the coaches, and the players know their roles.
"It has been quite seamless in that sense and we all know Joe is on the computer keeping an eye on things as well.
"That's the environment we're in, we've got to keep going and prepare for a really important Test match this week.
"Andy has taken the reins and has doing quite a good job to be fair to him."
Ireland will head to the Algarve this day week on an eight-day training camp.
But several more players could be cut from the provisional squad before then following the departure of Ultan Dillane and Rory Scannell back to their provinces.
Describing the selection meetings that are going on, Feek said: “Yeah, it’s intense.
"We’re not flipping tables or anything like that, you know, but it’s good, robust conversation and sometimes it’s a little bit of, ‘Well, we have to wait and see’".
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