Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has named 12 members of the starting side which defeated New Zealand 16-9 in November to again front the All Blacks in Saturday’s quarter-final.
Veteran Rob Kearney will start at fullback in place of the exciting Jordan Larmour, who has been in impressive form at the World Cup thus far. Peter O’Mahony starts at blindside flank ahead of Tadhg Beirne, who, like Larmour, drops to the bench.
Key to Ireland’s chances of progressing to a first-ever World Cup semi-final will be halfback pairing Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton, who will start their 56th test as a combination, surpassing the record set by Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara.
Garry Ringrose comes in for the suspended Bundee Aki and will play at 13, with Robbie Henshaw moving to inside centre.
Murray and Robbie Henshaw were the only players to miss the famous victory in Dublin, while Iain Henderson started on the bench in that game.
Ireland – 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 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 Rory Best (c), 1 Cain Healy.
Subs: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Tadhg Beirne, 20 Rhys Ruddock, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Jordan Larmour.
Photo: Archive
