Two New Zealand-born players will make their first starts for Ireland against Wales in Dublin on Friday night as the head coach, Andy Farrell, makes seven changes to the side which lost to France in the final round of the Six Nations to miss out on the title.
The Leinster wing James Lowe wins his first cap having qualified through residency while the scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park replaces Conor Murray to win his third cap having been on the bench against Italy and France last month.
Chris Farrell takes over from Bundee Aki in the midfield while Peter O’Mahony, Iain Henderson and Josh van der Flier return. The 22-year-old hooker Rónan Kelleher will start a Test for the first time. Johnny Sexton retains the captaincy with the uncapped Ulster fly-half Billy Burns on the bench.
“James Lowe brings an extra dimension to how we want to play,” said Farrell. “We have all seen him play for Leinster and hope he can bring the same to us. It means extra competition for places and that is important going forward.
“Jamison has done well coming off the bench and now he gets the opportunity to see how he can handle a full game. He is a little different to the other scrum-halves and we are excited to see how he goes. We are planning for the here and now and for the future. We plan to keep on doing that throughout.”
Sexton came under fire for his performance in Paris, as well as his reaction to being replaced, but the 35-year-old, who will be winning his 94th cap, said he always played as if he felt he had a point to prove and that being written off did not worry him.
“Even when things are going well, you have that nagging doubt in your head,” he said. “You can be the best thing since sliced bread one day and everyone writes you off the next. You always feel you have something to prove.
“We want to show against Wales how good we are because what we saw in Paris was not what we wanted to put out there. We have to show a ruthless streak and make sure we capitalise on our chances. If we had taken a few against France, perhaps we would have won. We have taken some big steps forward in part of our game and next is taking our opportunities.”
