Ireland name team to face England
Andy Farrell has named an unchanged Ireland team to face England next Sunday at Twickenham.
Fresh from defeating Scotland and Wales in Dublin, the new Irish boss heads to London with his team gunning for a Triple Crown success two years after they sealed the Six Nations Grand Slam on their last championship visit there.
Ireland ran out convincing 24-14 winners over the Welsh in their last outing and Farrell has opted to keep faith in the starting XV and make only a single alteration to the bench where Caelan Doris comes in for Max Deegan.
Rookie Doris earned his debut cap when starting the championship opener versus Scotland but he was concussed in the opening minutes, allowing Peter O’Mahony to come of the bench and reclaim the starting spot he had lost to the young Leinster back row.
Captain Johnny Sexton is named in the half-backs alongside Conor Murray. Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw start their ninth Test match as the midfield partnership.
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Jordan Larmour lines out at full-back with Andrew Conway and Jacob Stockdale on the wings.
Cian Healy, Rob Herring and Tadhg Furlong start a third consecutive Test match with Iain Henderson and James Ryan in the row. CJ Stander, O’Mahony and Josh van der Flier make up the back row combination.
Temperature rising ahead of Sunday at Twickenham https://t.co/WHSbcXvDzo
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 18, 2020
The replacements will be Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Devin Toner, Doris, John Cooney, Ross Byrne and Keith Earls.
Tom O’Toole and Will Addison will return to Ulster to prepare for their Guinness PRO14 game against the Cheetahs, but the rest of the non-matchday 23 will remain in camp for the team’s final training session on Friday.
6?? A level students for headmaster Faz… ?????? https://t.co/2ntKdVGH8v
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 11, 2020
Ireland team (vs England, Sunday)
15. Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 23 caps
14. Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster) 20 caps
13. Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 42 caps
12. Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht) 25 caps
11. Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 27 caps
10. Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 90 caps CAPT
9. Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 80 caps
1. Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 97 caps
2. Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster) 10 caps
3. Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 43 caps
4. Iain Henderson (Academy/Ulster) 55 caps
5. James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 25 caps
6. Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 66 caps
7. Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 25 caps
8. CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 40 caps
Replacements:
16. Ronan Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster) 2 caps
17. Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 38 caps
18. Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 25 caps
19. Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 69 caps
20. Caelan Doris (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 1 cap
21. John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster) 10 caps
22. Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster) 5 caps
23. Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 83 caps
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