Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has announced his 23-man squad to play Wales in the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
Following a record defeat to arch-rivals England last weekend in which the team looked way off the pace Schmidt has decided to make some changes of personnel.
The front-row sees three Munster men line up
together with Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell and John Ryan starting in place of
last week’s trio of Cian Healy, Rory Best and Tadhg Furlong.
Following a lot of noise questioning Rory
Best’s role as a starter and captain Schmidt has placed him on the bench along
with Furlong in order to give them a chance to get up to match speed.
Iain Henderson retains his place in the
second-row but is joined by James Ryan this week as the team look to sure up
their line-out, while Tadhg Beirne comes in at six, with captain Peter O’Mahony
switching to seven and Jack Conan completing the pack at No 8.
There is a Connacht pair in the half-backs
with Kieran Marmion and Jack Carty being given the chance to impress, while
fellow Connacht star Bundee Aki is just outside them in the centre with Munster’s
Chris Farrell linking-up with him.
Jacob Stockdale continues on the left-wing,
with Andrew Conway returning on the right and Will Addison opening up at
full-back.
The bench is full of experience with Best
and Furlong being joined by Andrew Porter, Devin Toner, Jordi Murphy, Luke
McGrath, Garry Ringrose and Dave Kearney.
Ringrose is said to be cover at out-half in
what is an interesting move by Schmidt.
The Kiwi will be hoping that his side can
put in a positive performance against what is an experimental Welsh team on
Saturday as they look to bounce back from their thumping at the hands of England.
This will be the first of two tests between
the sides with the return fixture set for next weekend in what will be both
teams final warm-up game ahead of the Rugby World Cup in Japan next month.
Check Out the Full 23-Man Squad Below.
Starting XV:
15 Will Addison, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Chris
Farrell, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jack Carty, 9 Kieran Marmion; 1
Dave Kilcoyne, 2 Niall Scannell, 3 John Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 5 James Ryan, 6
Tadhg Beirne, 7 Peter O’Mahony (c), 8 Jack Conan
Replacements:
16 Rory Best, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Tadhg
Furlong, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Jordi Murphy, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Garry Ringrose,
23 Dave Kearney
