Ireland Unchanged For Wales Trip

Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan has made no changes to the 22-man squad which fell to a 26-19 defeat to France last weekend, for Saturday’s potential Six Nations title decider with Wales.

With the continued injury absence of Leinster duo Gordon D’Arcy (hamstring) and Shane Horgan (thumb), Ulster’s Kevin Maggs is set to win his 69th cap – and make back-to-back Test starts for the first time since last February’s 35-17 Six Nations loss to France.

Maggs partners Brian O’Driscoll – who is searching for an eighteenth win in his 22nd outing as captain.

Saturday marks a special anniversary for the 26-year-old Irish skipper – it will be five years to the day since he bagged a famous try hat-trick against France, in Ireland’s first victory in Paris for 28 years.

O’Driscoll scored twice in last year’s 36-15 win over the Welsh – and has notched six tries in his last 12 Tests, culminating in last Saturday’s late effort (his 27th in all).

The squad contains three players who made their international debuts against Wales in previous years – Donncha O’Callaghan, Denis Hickie and Paul O’Connell – with the latter two having scored first time out in 1997 and 2002 respectively.

Bruff and Munster tighthead John Hayes will prop down for the 20th successive time since recovering from a groin injury in 2003.

A 13 point-win for O’Sullivan’s charges, with France not beating Italy by more than 41 points, would hand Ireland their first Championship title since 1985.

A victory by any margin in Cardiff would gleam back-to-back Triple Crowns for the Irish for the first time since 1949.

In sticking by his side, O’Sullivan commented: “It wasn’t a difficult team selection meeting. We didn’t think about changing anyone because we played well against France, so we’ve stuck with the same squad.

“Once we learned that Gordon and Shane would be unavailable again – we knew we would be selecting the same side,” he added.

Wales – who have injury doubts over Rhys Williams (calf), Mefin Davies (leg), Hal Luscombe (hamstring) and Gareth Cooper (ankle), although winger Williams is said to be recovering well – name their line-up tomorrow.

The Ireland team to play Wales in the RBS Six Nations at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on Saturday, March 19 (kick-off 3.30pm), is as follows:

15 – Geordan Murphy
(Leicester), DOB 19/04/78, 30 Caps
14 – Girvan Dempsey
(Leinster – Terenure College), 02/10/75, 57 Caps
13 – Brian O’Driscoll
(Leinster – Blackrock College), 21/01/1979, 58 Caps (Captain)
12 – Kevin Maggs
(Ulster – Belfast Harlequins), 03/06/1974, 68 Caps
11 – Denis Hickie
(Leinster – St. Mary’s College), 13/02/76, 50 Caps
10 – Ronan O’Gara
(Munster – Cork Constitution), 07/03/77, 51 Caps
9 – Peter Stringer
(Munster – Shannon), 13/12/77, 55 Caps
1 – Reggie Corrigan
(Leinster – Greystones), 19/11/70, 43 Caps
2 – Shane Byrne
(Leinster – Blackrock College), 18/07/71, 37 Caps
3 – John Hayes
(Munster – Bruff), 02/11/73, 53 Caps
4 – Malcolm O’Kelly
(Leinster – St. Mary’s College), 19/07/74, 72 Caps
5 – Paul O’Connell
(Munster – Young Munster), 20/10/79, 28 Caps
6 – Simon Easterby
(Llanelli), 21/07/75, 41 Caps
7 – Johnny O’Connor
(Wasps), 09/02/80, 5 Caps
8 – Anthony Foley
(Munster – Shannon), 30/10/73, 61 Caps

Replacements:
16 – Frank Sheahan

(Munster – Cork Constitution), 27/08/76, 21 Caps
17 – Marcus Horan
(Munster – Shannon), 07/09/77, 27 Caps
18 – Donncha O’Callaghan
(Munster – Cork Constitution), 23/03/79, 15 Caps
19 – Eric Miller
(Leinster – Terenure College), 23/9/75, 45 Caps
20 – Guy Easterby
(Leinster – Blackrock College), 21/03/71, 28 Caps
21 – David Humphreys
(Ulster – Dungannon), 10/09/71, 66 Caps
22 – Gavin Duffy
(NEC Harlequins), 18/09/1981, 2 Caps

Not considered due to injury: Gordon D’Arcy (Leinster – Lansdowne) {Hamstring}, Denis Leamy (Munster – Cork Constitution) {Hamstring}, Shane Horgan (Leinster – Lansdowne) {Thumb}