Ireland hooker Rory Best has been given the all-clear to take his place in the Ireland XV for the crunch quarter-final with Wales on Saturday.
Best, seen above wearing some bizarre mind-altering device, had been named in the Irish team announced by Declan Kidney early yesterday morning, but Sean Cronin was waiting on standby to go into the front row if the Ulster hooker failed to recover from a shoulder injury sustained in the magnificent win over Italy on Sunday.
All match day 22s at the Rugby World Cup have to be confirmed 48 hours before kick-off and the Ireland team that was submitted ahead of this morning’s 6am (Irish time) deadline included Best alongside Cian Healy and Mike Ross in the front row.
The news will come as a relief to Kidney as Best has been playing some of the best rugby of his career in the tournament to date and alongside Healy and Ross, has formed a quite formidable front row outfit.
With less than 48 hours to go until kick-off in Wellington, here’s a none too subtle reminder to join us as we track the game live as it happens from bright and early Saturday morning. We’ll be live from 5.30am.
Ireland (to play Wales): 15. Rob Kearney 14. Tommy Bowe 13. Brian O’Driscoll 12. Gordon D’Arcy 11. Keith Earls 10. Ronan O’Gara 9. Conor Murray 1. Cian Healy 2. Rory Best 3. Mike Ross 4. Donncha O’Callaghan 5. Paul O’Connell 6. Stephen Ferris 7. Sean O’Brien 8. Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: 16. Sean Cronin 17. Tom Court 18. Donnacha Ryan 19. Denis Leamy 20. Eoin Reddan 21. Jonathan Sexton. 22. Andrew Trimble.
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