Scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park starts with Mack Hansen shifting to fullback against Fiji on Saturday, as Tadhg Beirne takes over the Ireland captaincy.
Gibson-Park, who has played just once for Leinster this season and came on as a replacement in Ireland’s 42-12 victory over Argentina last week, partners Sam Prendergast at halfback at the Aviva Stadium.
The 34-year-old will get some much-needed game time ahead of next week’s match with the world champion Springboks in Dublin.
Beirne deputises for Dan Sheehan, who has been ruled out because of concussion.
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Hansen, flanker Ryan Baird and prop Andrew Porter start for the second successive match as they are relatively fresh having returned to the Test side last week after nearly a year’s absence.
Hansen switches from the wing as Farrell rests Hugo Keenan after scoring a hat-trick of tries against Los Pumas.
Hansen’s move means Robert Baloucoune and Tommy O’Brien are reunited on the wings.
Farrell has resisted bringing in a specialist No 8 with three already injured: regular captain Caelan Doris, Jack Conan and Sean Jansen. Instead, Nick Timoney moves from flanker to fill the void.
Ireland are third in the northern hemisphere table of the Nations Championship with two matches remaining before finals weekend at Twickenham at the end of the month.
IRELAND – 15 Mack Hansen, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Jamie Osborne, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Tommy O’Brien, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Nick Timoney, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Ryan Baird, 5 Tadhg Beirne (c), 4 James Ryan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Andrew Porter.
Bench: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Tom O’Toole, 18 Sam Illo, 19 Darragh Murray, 20 James McNabney, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ciarán Frawley, 23 Stuart McCloskey.
– AFP
Photo: @IrishRugby/X
The post Ireland switch things up before Bok duel appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park starts with Mack Hansen shifting to fullback against Fiji on Saturday, as Tadhg Beirne takes over the Ireland captaincy.
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