Jared Payne will train on his bruised foot next Tuesday and is expected to run fully with the squad by Thursday while Rob Kearney showed up fully fit today.
Neither will be risked against Italy but Joe Schmidt’s team for the third Pool D game ups the ante to a whole new level at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday.
Keith Earls moves from left wing to outside centre for Payne with both Johnny Sexton and Joe Schmidt further rubbishing recent criticism of the naturalised Kiwi.
“It’s often hard to talk about a teammate without putting another one down but with Jared he makes everyone play better,” said Sexton. “He makes my job easier, he makes the job of the guys outside him easier with good passing, good decisions. He’s an excellent kicking game, I know he had one blocked down the last day but it was a good decision to try and put the ball through.
“But then Keith will bring something totally different. He’s electric at the moment in training and on the pitch. It’s a case of get the ball in his hands and let him off. A great guy to play with.”
Schmidt added: “Jared is very calm, very clear in his communication and his decision making is very good both defensively and on attack. He took a line in the Canada game that was nice and square that led to Sean Cronin’s try.”
Payne’s attacking and kicking had come in for pointed criticism after the Romania game so that appears to cover that.
Earls getting a chance at 13 has a domino effect of Dave Kearney moving to the left wing as Tommy Bowe’s return to his world class self, with two tries and some magnificent fielding against Romania, seeing him retained on the right flank.
Luke Fitzgerald can only make the bench and with Simon Zebo at fullback, an unholy internal battle will take place for the two wing slots ahead of the French game in Cardiff on Sunday week.
“I didn’t really think it could get more competitive than it has,” said Dave Kearney. “But it has again. The wingers [Bowe and Earls] did really well against Romania, got two tries each, so it packs on the pressure.”
It’s an environment all five candidates seem to be enjoying.
“I think it gets the best out of players,” added Kearney.
Ian Madigan’s selection as cover for Sexton, instead of Paddy Jackson, is also significant as Fitzgerald will presumably come in for anyone injured from inside centre to fullback.
Jack McGrath has been handed the number one jersey while Cian Healy is expected off the bench at some stage.
Donnacha Ryan misses out on the matchday 23 entirely with Devin Toner’s career performance against Romania seeing him provide second row cover behind Iain Henderson and Paul O’Connell.
“Dev played well but Dev always plays well,” said Henderson, of Toner’s performance against Romania.
Henderson can also move to blindside flanker so Chris Henry is another form pick. Sean Cronin makes the bench ahead of Richardt Strauss.
As for the gameplan, Sexton implied a return to the Six Nations performances to deal with Italy’s pack after two free-wheeling showings against lower tier nations.
“We know what we produced in the last two weeks won’t be good enough against Italy. We probably have to go back to the warm-up games and take bits of those games as they are the last time we played against a Six Nations team.
“Guys like Sarto will do what Jonny May did to us if we are not on our game. Guys like (Sergio) Parisse, he’s world class.”
Having recovered from a calf injury that kept the Italian captain in Paris for treatment until this week, Parisse has been named at number eight.
Ireland: Simon Zebo; Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Dave Kearney; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Mike Ross; Iain Henderson, Paul O'Connell; Peter O'Mahony, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip. Replacements: Sean Cronin, Cian Healy, Nathan White, Devin Toner, Chris Henry, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan, Luke Fitzgerald.
Italy: Luke McLean; Leonardo Sarto, Michele Capagnaro, Gonzalo Garcia, Giovanbattista Venditti; Tommaso Allan, Edoardo Gori; Matias Aguero, Andrea Manici, Lorenzo Cittadini; Ouintin Geldenhuys, Josh Furno; Francesco Minto, Simone Favaro, Sergio Parisse. Replacements: Davide Giazzon, Michele Rizzo, Dario Chistolini, Alessandro Zanni, Mauro Bergamasco, Guglielmo Palazzani, Carlo Canna, Tommaso Benvenuti.
