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Ireland make six changes their XV and include uncapped prop on their bench to face Scotland
By Online Editors
Andy Farrell has reacted to the unimpressive Ireland win last Sunday over Georgia by changing six of his starting side to face Scotland in this Saturday's third-place Autumn Nations Cup playoff in Dublin.
Ireland stuttered for second-half momentum versus the Georgians, winning only 23-10 and leaving their coach dissatisfied with what he had seen. He has now taken remedial action with his fourth Nations Cup selection and his sixth match in recent weeks.
Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw return at midfield, with Henshaw at No13, in the hope that they will go better than Chris Farrell and Stuart McCloskey.
The third backline change sees fit-again skipper Johnny Sexton reinstated at out-half and he will resume his experienced partnership with Conor Murray.
The three changes in the starting pack begin with Cian Healy's restoration at loosehead in place of Finlay Bealham, who had difficulty coping with the Georgian scrum.
In the back row, Peter O'Mahony and Caelan Doris come back in for Tadhg Beirne and Will Connors, joining CJ Stander who will pack down at blindside having been at No8 last weekend.
The big bench news is the call-up for uncapped loosehead Eric O’Sullivan of Ulster. He is joined in the replacements by Ronan Kelleher, John Ryan, Quinn Roux, Josh van der Flier, Jamison Gibson-Park, Ross Byrne and Farrell.
IRELAND (vs Scotland, Saturday)
15. Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 32
14. Hugo Keenan (UCD/Leinster) 5
13. Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 46
12. Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 29
11. Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 87
10. Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster 94 Captain
9. Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 86
1. Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 103
2. Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 15
3. Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 31
4. Iain Henderson (Academy/Ulster) 57
5. James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 31
6. CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 45
7. Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 72
8. Caelan Doris (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) 6
Replacements:
16. Ronan Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster) 5
17. Eric O’Sullivan (Banbridge/Ulster) Uncapped
18. John Ryan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 22
19. Quinn Roux (Galwegians/Connacht) 15
20. Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 27
21. Jamison Gibson-Park ( Leinster) 4
22. Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 10
23. Chris Farrell (Young Munster/Munster) 13.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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