Ryan To Start For Ireland

Donncha Ryan will make his first RBS 6 Nations start for Ireland having featured as a replacement in five previous games of the championship on Saturday, 11th March against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium ko 5pm.

Ryan will join Donncha O'Callaghan in the second row with Munster's Keith Earls also named in the first XV.

In the absence of Paul O’Connell, Rory Best has been named as captain and he will lead out the team for the third time.

Munster’s Tomas O’Leary has been named on the bench as Eoin Reddan starts in the scrum half position in place of the injured Conor Murray.

Ronan O'Gara and Peter O'Mahony have also been named as replacements.

IRELAND Team

15 – Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 – Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 – Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
12 – Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 – Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
10 – Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
9 – Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
1 – Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 – Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (capt)
3 – Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 – Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 – Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
6 – Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 – Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 – Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 – Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 – Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 – Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 – Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 – Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 – Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 – Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)