Ireland have named regular centre Robbie Henshaw at full-back for the team to play England this Saturday in their Six Nations opener in Dublin.
The 25-year-old has been selected ahead of two-time Grand Slam winner Rob Kearney, who misses out on the matchday squad altogether as Jordan Larmour is preferred among the replacements, and while he made his debut at full-back in 2013, he has played the rest of his 36 caps at centre.
It is a bold call from Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt in what will be his final Six Nations campaign before leaving the side after this year’s Rugby World Cup, with Henshaw only just returning from a long-term hamstring injury in January.
But the Leinster centre has impressed since making his return, and with club teammate Kearney missing last week’s training camp in Portugal in order to gain match fitness with Leinster after suffering a quad injury in November, Schmidt has put his faith in Henshaw to cope with an England side looking to test out Ireland “aerially”, as Eddie Jones warned this week.
"Robbie trained last week and a bit in November at full-back," said Schmidt.
"He actually trained there a bit in Australia in the summer too. It's been an option for us for quite some time.
"Rob (Kearney) ran out of time a little bit, and we like the flexibility of Jordan Larmour on the bench covering a number of positions. It's one of those things that we've seen as an option for quite some time.
"So it's probably not as much of a surprise to Robbie or the team as it is to other people."
It means that Bundee Aki continues his centre pairing with Garry Ringrose while Jacob Stockdale and Keith Earls are named on the wings, with the former looking to add to his impressive record of 12 tries in 14 international Tests.
Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray are reunited at half-back after the latter missed the autumn internationals with a mystery neck injury, while the pack is the exact same one that helped beat New Zealand in November with Josh van der Flier at openside flanker, meaning Sean O’Brien can only return to the replacements.
With no Tadhg Beirne or Iain Henderson available due to injury, Connacht lock Quinn Roux is selected in the bench along with Leinster forwards Sean Cronin, Andrew Porter and O’Brien, with Munster loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne making up the pack options, while Larmour is joined by Munster fly-half Joey Carbery and Connacht scrum-half John Cooney as support for the backs.
Ireland team to face England
Robbie Henshaw; Keith Earls, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Tadhg Furlong; Devin Toner, James Ryan; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, CJ Stander.
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Quinn Roux, Sean O’Brien, John Cooney, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour.
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