LEO CULLEN HAS been named as Ireland’s captain for the upcoming World Cup warm-up clash against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The Leinster second row wears the armband for the first time as he leads a side with one new face – that of Connacht’s Mike McCarthy – with Felix Jones also named for the first time among the replacements.
Rob Kearney has recovered from his knee injury and comes in for the first time since November, while Fergus McFadden and Paddy Wallace team up in the centre for the first time.
Donnacha Ryan will start alongside Cullen, while the front row consists of Tom Court, Tony Buckley and Sean Cronin.
Niall Ronan starts at openside flanker, with Denis Leamy at No.8.
Ireland team to face Scotland (Saturday, 2.15pm): Kearney; Trimble, McFadden, Wallace, Fitzgerald; Sexton, O’Leary; Court, Cronin, Buckley; Ryan, Cullen; McCarthy, Ronan, Leamy.
Replacements: Flannery, Horan, Hayes, M O’Driscoll, McLaughlin, Boss, Jones.
About time.
@Phil: I think the management are trying to give the players a full pre season before giving them match time in these games. If you look at the team, only Fitzgerald and Sexton started the Magners League Final at the start of June. I think they will be re introducing the front line players over the course of the warm up games. Remember, there are 5 games in total. So, I would expect us to be playing our full team by the middle or the end of the series.
So much for the 1st’s gettin alot of gametime preWC, half these guys won’t be on the plane. We’ll be undercooked again
Phil, the concept of international rugby team management now is that there isn’t a ‘firsts’.
There is a squad who are all ‘firsts’.
Clearly Kidney will use this time to decide who will go and who won’t. If you think he is part of the Munster mafia then fair enough, I just don’t know where you draw your view from.
Even at club level, we work to introduce the ‘squad’ concept right from underage. It eliminates the prima donna attitude of an ‘A team’
will it be televised?
Correction: half these guys Shouldn’t be on the plane, but the Munster Mafia will have their way
Actually, just checked, it doesn’t appear to be on BBC 2 NI, which is the channel we get here, they are showing the Dublin v Tyrone game. I read that it was on BBC in The Sunday Times, they mustn’t have changed it for their Irish readers. So, after all this, I have no idea if it is being televised.
I can get BBC London as well as BBC NI, thank God although I just checke my virgin listings and the GAA isnt til 7 and BBC2 NI is showing both
It’s on BBC2 for definite, don’t know about RTE’s coverage. There are issues surrounding RTE’s coverage of the whole warm up series.