Humphreys at out half for Ireland

David Humphreys has been handed the number ten for this weekend’s opener against scotland, Ronan O’ Gara failing to recover from the injury he picked up in the Celtic League Final. O’ Gara’s injury means that his place on the bench is taken up by Paul Burke.

The Irish team to play Scotland in the Bank of Scotland Six Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Sunday, February 16th (k.o. 3:00pm) is as follows:

15 – Girvan Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure College),14 – Shane Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne),13 – Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock College) Captain, 12 – Kevin Maggs (Bath)
11 – Denis Hickie (Leinster/ St. Mary’s College), 10 – David Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon), 9 – Peter Stringer (Munster/Shannon)

1 – Reggie Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), 2 – Shane Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), 3 – John Hayes (Munster/Shannon), 4 – Gary Longwell (Ulster/Ballymena),
5 – Malcolm O’Kelly (Leinster/St. Mary’s College), 6 – Victor Costello (Leinster/St. Mary’s College), 7 – Keith Gleeson (Leinster/St. Mary’s College), 8 – Anthony Foley (Munster/Shannon)

Replacements: 16 – Frank Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution), 17 – Marcus Horan (Munster/Shannon), 18 – Leo Cullen (Leinster/Blackrock College), 19 – Alan Quinlan (Munster/Shannon), 20 – Guy Easterby (Llanelli), 21 – Paul Burke (Harlequins), 22 – Geordan Murphy (Leicester).

Not considered because of injury: Keith Wood (Harlequins), David Wallace (Munster/Garryowen), Paul Wallace (Leinster/Blackrock College), Paul O’Connell (Munster/Young Munster), Emmet Byrne (Leinster/St. Mary’s College), Justin Bishop (London Irish), Jonathon Bell (Ulster/Dungannon), Tyrone Howe (Ulster/Dungannon), Ronan O’Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution).