Like almost every other Irish team announcement throughout the Six Nations, there was precious little surprise when Declan Kidney named the Irish team to face England today.
Not that Kidney can be overly criticised for adopting such an approach – the opposition mightn’t have been up to much, but Ireland were excellent at times against Scotland and the coach has kept faith with 14 of the same 15 that did the business on the day.
As expected, Sean O’Brien returns at the expense of Peter O’Mahony after the Tullow Tank recovered from the skin infection that laid him low at the weekend.
O’Mahony played well on Saturday and can consider himself unfortunate to be omitted, but a player of O’Brien’s calibre is impossible to ignore and he’ll don the number seven jersey for the much anticipated Paddy’s Day clash in Twickenham.
Elsewhere, there were speculative suggestions that the likes of Jamie Heaslip and Gordon D’Arcy were fighting for their places, but both retain the number eight and inside centre spots respectively as Shane Jennings drops out of the match day 22 to make way for O’Brien’s return.
Ireland take on England in Twickenham on Saturday at 5pm. We can’t wait.
Ireland: Rob Kearney; Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, Gordon D’Arcy, Andrew Trimble; Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Donncha O’Callaghan, Donnacha Ryan; Stephen Ferris Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Mike McCarthy, Peter O’Mahony, Tomas O’Leary, Ronan O’Gara, Fergus McFadden
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