DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland captain Johnny Sexton was among the many gamers to return to the beginning lineup to face England on the weekend when coach Andy Farrell named his staff on Thursday as each side intention to maintain their possibilities of a Six Nations title alive.
Sexton, who introduced this week that he’ll retire after subsequent yr’s World Cup, missed Ireland’s solely lack of the match thus far to France via harm and returned as a substitute within the 57-6 thrashing of Italy final trip.
Ireland path France by three factors whereas England, the one different staff with two victories, are 4 factors behind the leaders .
“It’s a large problem for us this weekend,” Ireland Farrell instructed a information convention forward of Satruday’s match. “We’ve received to show to ourselves that there is a efficiency in there from us that is a step above what we have proven already.”
Farrell opted to revive Bundee Aki to the midfield forward of Robbie Henshaw, who he stated was nonetheless affected by a scarcity of sport time. Andrew Conway and Hugo Keenan return to the again three alongside James Lowe who’s retained from the Italy sport.
With injured prop Andrew Porter becoming a member of fellow entrance rower Ronan Kelleher on the sidelines for the remainder of the match, Cian Healy will begin his first sport of this yr’s Six Nations to win his one hundred and fifteenth cap.
Farrell additionally praised Peter O’Mahony’s type and management qualities after he retained his place within the backrow forward of Jack Conan, who’s among the many replacements once more after the beginning the primary two video games.
“It’s all the time tough once you’ve received squad, some powerful choices, however we really feel the steadiness of the staff is nice one… And clearly you take a look at our bench, we have an skilled bench and an explosive bench,” Farrell stated.
Ireland staff:
15. Hugo Keenan (Leinster) 18 caps
14. Andrew Conway (Munster) 29 caps
13. Garry Ringrose (Leinster) 40 caps
12. Bundee Aki (Connacht) 35 caps
11. James Lowe (Leinster) 10 caps
10. Johnny Sexton (Leinster, captain) 103 caps
9. Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 15 caps
8. Caelan Doris (Leinster) 15 caps
7. Josh van der Flier (Leinster) 38 caps
6. Peter O’Mahony (Munster) 82 caps
5. James Ryan (Leinster) 42 caps
4. Tadhg Beirne (Munster) 28 caps
3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster) 55 caps
2. Dan Sheehan (Leinster) 5 caps
1. Cian Healy (Leinster) 114 caps
Replacements
16. Rob Herring (Ulster) 24 caps
17. Dave Kilcoyne (Munster) 46 caps
18. Finlay Bealham (Connacht) 21 caps
19. Iain Henderson (Ulster) 66 caps
20. Jack Conan (Leinster) 25 caps
21. Conor Murray (Munster) 94 caps
22. Joey Carbery (Munster) 30 caps
23. Robbie Henshaw (Leinster) 55 caps
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ken Ferris)
