Leinster flanker Shane Jennings has been promoted to the starting side for Ireland’s Test match against Australia in Melbourne on Saturday.
David Wallace has picked up a calf strain and following a fitness test this morning, Wallace was ruled out of the Australian game by the Ireland team medical staff.
With Shane Jennings starting at openside for Ireland, his position amongst the replacements is taken by Stephen Ferris, who was a late call-up to the squad for the injured Alan Quinlan.
Encouraged by this week’s training and the freshness of the squad, Ireland interim coach Michael Bradley is hopeful for a big performance from his side against the Wallabies.
“There is an in-built state of mind with any Irishman when they put on the green jersey. This particular group of players is coming off the back of the Heineken Cup and there’s a lot of perfectionists among the players,” said Bradley.
“If you watch the training sessions, at the end of the sessions they are all doing individual drills and we don’t ask them to do that. They do it themselves.
“The amibition for this group of players is very high. The coaching staff have the ability to tap into that and hopefully we get a performance like that.”
IRELAND TEAM & REPLACEMENTS (v Australia, Saturday, June 14, Telstra Stadium, Melbourne, kick-off 8.05pm local time/11.05am Irish time):
Player / Club / Caps
15 – Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 7
14 – Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster) 62
13 – Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) 84 (capt)
12 – Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster) 9
11 – Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 14
10 – Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster) 83
9 – Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster) 83
1 – Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster) 57
2 – Rory Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 23
3 – John Hayes (Bruff/Munster) 85
4 – Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 46
5 – Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster) 53
6 – Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster) 33
7 – Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) 2
8 – Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster) 9
Replacements:
16 – Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster) 22
17 – Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster) 8
18 – Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster) 15
19 – Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster) 4
20 – Eoin Reddan (Wasps) 11
21 – Geordan Murphy (Leicester) 57
22 – Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College/Leinster) 80
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