Ireland Team To Play Scotland
The Ireland team to play Scotland in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Sunday has been named.
There are three changes to the Ireland team from the last outing against France, and all of those changes are in the back-line.
Tommy Bowe has recovered from the knee injury that ruled him out of the first two games of the Championship and is named on the right wing in place of Fergus McFadden.
There is a change at out-half with Ronan O’Gara coming into the team to win his 106th cap for Ireland and Jonathan Sexton moving to the replacements bench.
Tomas O’Leary has been ruled out due to a back injury, so Eoin Reddan comes into the side at scrum half and Peter Stringer is named on the bench.
Donncha O’Callaghan will start in the second row where he will win his 70th cap for Ireland, while Brian O’Driscoll will captain the team for the 73rd time.
Head coach Declan Kidney said: “The boys have trained well between last Thursday in Cork and yesterday and today (in Dublin).
“Tomas was training with us. He pulled up with a sore back, so that was the only last-minute issue that cropped up.
“Tommy (Bowe) came through the 80 minutes (for the Ospreys last weekend), he came through it well. He’s been able to train full out with us. He’s be going well this week and obviously he brings his own wealth of experience into the side.
“Ronan’s form has been good. He deserves a game. Jonathan has done really well for us in the matches in November and the two Six Nations games to date.
“They’ll both play for Ireland again. I just felt that it was right to play Ronan in this game.”
A limited number of tickets have been returned and are on sale online now.
IRELAND Team & Replacements (v Scotland, 2011 RBS 6 Nations Championship, Murrayfield, Sunday, February 27, kick-off 3pm):
15 – Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
14 – Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 – Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 – Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 – Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
10 – Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 – Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
1 – Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 – Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 – Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 – Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 – Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 – Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
7 – David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
8 – Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Replacements:
16 – Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
17 – Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 – Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
19 – Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 – Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
21 – Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
22 – Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
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