Ronan O’Gara has been dropped ot the bench for what could be his 100th Test cap in Ireland’s final game of the season against Australia.

Chris Henry will win his first cap for Ireland when he lines out at No.8 in the team to play Australia in Brisbane this Saturday.

Henry is one of four players including Paddy Wallace, Jonathan Sexton and back row Niall Ronan that are retained in the starting XV from Ireland’s last game against New Zealand Maori.

Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble, Tomas O’Leary and Captain Brian O’Driscoll also return to the backline to play Australia in Suncorp Stadium.

In the forwards, Mick O’Driscoll is named in the second row after recovering from a back injury to partner Donncha O’Callaghan.

Cian Healy, Sean Cronin and Tony Buckley in the front row also return to the starting team. In the replacements, Rhys Ruddock and Damien Varley are the other uncapped players in the match 22.

Ireland XV:

15 – Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 14 – Tommy Bowe (Ospreys) 13 – Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) Captain 12 – Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster) 11 – Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 10 – Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary’s College/Leinster) 9 – Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin/Munster) 1 – Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 2 – Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht) 3 – Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster) 4 – Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 5 – Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster) 6 – Niall Ronan (Shannon/Munster) 7 – Shane Jennings (St.Mary’s College/Leinster) 8 – Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)*

Replacements: 16 – Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster)* 17 – Tom Court (Malone/Ulster) 18 – Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster) 19 – Rhys Ruddock (UCD/Leinster)* 20 – Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster) 21 – Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster) 22 – Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

*Denotes uncapped player

One Response to O’Gara dropped to bench for Ozzie encounter

Users Online

Total 104 users including 0 member, 104 guests, 0 bot online

Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm