Ireland will be without Conor Murray for their clash against England
Thursday 16 March 2017 20:37, UK
Conor Murray is out of the Ireland team to face England in the Six Nations finale at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday due to an injury.
Kieran Marmion steps into the Murray's berth at scrum-half in one of three changes that Ireland have made as Iain Henderson comes in for Devin Toner while Jared Payne replaces Rob Kearney.
Murray has failed to shake off his shoulder problem, while fit-again Payne starts at full-back ahead of the injured Kearney, who will have a scan on his knee later this week.
Henderson is preferred to Toner in the second-row, who drops to the bench. Keith Earls has shaken off his groin complaint to start on the wing.
Speaking about the changes, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said: ""We just felt if we lost him [Murray] early in the game we would be vulnerable.
"Iain Henderson came off the bench and did really well last week. Between Donnacha Ryan and Dev [Toner] we just wanted to give him a chance to start. Donnacha also did well last week, so it was just trying to get that balance.
"Rob Kearney has got a knee injury and is unavailable to be selected. It probably won't be too long but needs a bit of further investigation."
Ireland are bidding to avoid losing to all three home nations rivals in one Championship for the first time since 1998, and must now do so without several of their most trusted lieutenants.
"There's still an opportunity to finish second which is a massive thing for us," said Schmidt.
"We can still attain the target of second place, so there's still a heck of a lot for us to gain individually and collectively."
Ireland: 15 Jared Payne, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Kieran Marmion; 1 Jake McGrath, 2 Rory Best (c), 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 5 Iain Henderson, 6 CJ Stander, 7 Sean O'Brien, 8 Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Cian Healy, 18 John Ryan, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Peter O'Mahony, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Paddy Jackson, 23 Andrew Conway.
