Ireland change two for crucial Wales fixture

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Ireland have made two changes to their starting line-up that will take on Wales in their Six Nations clash at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

In the back-row Peter O’Mahony comes in for Caelan Doris, who was injured in the early minutes of the game against Scotland last weekend. CJ Stander reverts to number eight with Josh van der Flier named at openside.

Iain Henderson and James Ryan start in the second-row and the front-row is unchanged with Cian Healy, Rob Herring and Tadhg Furlong all included.

Conor Murray and Jonathan Sexton will both reach significant milestones this weekend with the scrum-half set to win his 80th and the captain winning his 90th cap.

The hand injury picked up by Garry Ringrose means that Robbie Henshaw will partner Bundee Aki in the centre, while the back three of Jacob Stockdale, Andrew Conway and Jordan Larmour is also unchanged.

The uncapped Max Deegan is included in the replacements which also sees the return of Keith Earls.

Ronan Kelleher, who won his first cap off the bench against Scotland, is named alongside Andrew Porter and Dave Kilcoyne, subject to him completing his Return To Play protocols this week.

Devin Toner, John Cooney and Ross Byrne complete the 23.

Ireland: 15 Jordan Larmour, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jonathan Sexton (c), 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 James Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Max Deegan, 21 John Cooney, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Keith Earls

Date: Saturday, February 8
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Kick-off: 14:15 GMT
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (England), Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)

 

Ireland