Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has made four changes to his starting XV for his side’s match against Rugby World Cup hosts Japan on Saturday.
Following last Sunday’s 27-3 win over Scotland, Ireland have been forced into a couple of changes, however, some key men will be making a return to the team.
Fly-half Johnny Sexton, centre Bundee Aki, and back-three duo Andrew Conway and Jordan Larmour come out of the starting line-up with Jack Carty, Chris Farrell, Keith Earls and Rob Kearney taking their places respectively.
Sexton, who suffered a knock to the thigh last weekend and Aki, who picked up a knock to the head have been given extra time to recover. While Conway is rested and Larmour covers the backs from the bench.
Elsewhere, it is as you were with the remainder of the XV staying the same as last weekend.
That means that it’s a front-row of Cian Healy, captain Rory Best and Tadhg Furlong, with Iain Henderson and James Ryan lining-up behind them in the second-row.
Once more it’s a powerful back-row as Peter O’Mahony is at blindside-flanker, with Josh van der Flier on the openside and CJ Stander continues as No 8.
Conor Murray joins Carty in the half-backs, while Farrell will link-up with Garry Ringrose in the centre pairing.
The shuffle in the back-three means it is Jacob Stockdale on the left-wing, Earls on the right and Kearney at full-back.
There is plenty of experience on the bench for Schmidt to call upon if needed with the likes of Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Rhys Ruddock and a returning Joey Carbery among the subs.
Ireland assistant coach Richie Murphy insisted that despite the win last weekend that the team still have a lot to work on ahead of a big game.
“There were definitely areas of our game we weren’t happy with. We’ll address them internally and we’ll try and build that for Japan because we see this as another step up. Japan in Japan is a very difficult game. They want to play fast and loose, that’s what we expect, but they’ll be very well-organised in that. It will be up to us to try and implement our game plan on top of them,” he said.
Although Sexton and Aki are absent in order to allow them time to recover, the absent Robbie Henshaw could make a return in the near future too according to Murphy as he steps up his recovery from injury.
“He (Henshaw) was in training today. He’s done a lot of running today, came through that no problem,” he added.
Many expect this to be a real test for Ireland in their bid to make it out of Pool A, but after seeing the experience in the squad Irish fans will expect their side to produce a win ahead of clashes with Russia and Samoa.
Check Out the Full 23-Man Squad Below.
Starting XV:
Rob Kearney, Keith Earls, Gary Ringrose, Chris Farrell, Jacob Stockdale, Jack Carty, Connor Murray, CJ Stander, Josh van der Flier, Peter O’Mahony, James Ryan, Iain Henderson, Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best (c), Cian Healy
Replacements:
Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Beirne, Rhys Ruddock, Luke McGrath, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour.
