O’Gara Set For 50th, Foley for 60th Senior Cap.

Ronan O’Gara will win his 50th senior international cap and his Munster captain Anthony Foley his 60th, when Ireland take on England at Lansdowne Road on Sunday.

Ronan O’Gara will win his 50th senior international cap and his Munster captain Anthony Foley his 60th, in the RBS Six Nations encounter with England at Lansdowne Road on Sunday (3pm). Foley won the first of those 60 caps, a little over 10 years ago when he made his debut against England at Lansdowne Road. He marked the occasion by scoring his side’s only try and the other debutants that day included current Munster number 10, Paul Burke.

Ronan O’Gara made his debut five years ago in the game against Scotland, brought into the side on foot of the 50-18 hammering by England at Twickenham a fortnight earlier.

Also brought into the side that day were O’Gara’s Munster colleagues, Peter Stringer, John Hayes and Mick Galwey and the introduction of of Munster steel produced the required effect, Ireland winning 44-22, with O’Gara scoring 10 of the 491 Test points he has accumulated to date.

The only change to the Ireland team for Sunday is the return of captain Brian O’Driscoll who takes up the familiar number 13 role. That means Shane Horgan switching to inside centre and Kevin Maggs dropping to the bench at the expense of Gavin Duffy.

The team announcement today listed three players – Gordon D’Arcy, Keith Gleeson and Neil McMillan – as, ‘not considered due to injury’. It has to be presumed that the omission of the injured Denis Leamy (hamstring), who was due to join up with the squad on Sunday night, was an oversight.

Ireland. 15 Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers) 14 Girvan Dempsey (Leinster) 13 Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster) capt 12 Shane Horgan (Leinster) 11 Denis Hickie (Leinster) 10 Ronan O’Gara (Munster) 9 Peter Stringer (Munster) 1 Reggie Corrigan (Leinster) 2 Shane Byrne (Leinster) 3 John Hayes (Munster) 4 Malcolm O’Kelly (Leinster) 5 Paul O’Connell (Munster) 6 Simon Easterby (Llanelli) 7 Johnny O’Connor (Wasps) 8 Anthony Foley (Munster) Replacements. 16 Frank Sheahan (Munster) 17 Marcus Horan (Munster) 18 Donncha O’Callaghan (Munster) 19 Eric Miller (Leinster) 20 Guy Easterby (Leinster) 21 David Humphreys (Ulster) 22 Kevin Maggs (Ulster) Referee – Jonathan Kaplan.