Andy Farrell is not messing about.
The Ireland team to face New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium, this Saturday, has been named. There are a couple of contentious calls, but it is unquestionably strong.
Farrell has made a couple of tweaks from the match-day squad that started against Japan, last week. Iain Henderson is in from the start, and Rob Herring comes on to the replacements bench.
Ireland are fresh off the back of a 60-5 win over Japan that was their sixth straight of 2021. The All Blacks won five of their six Rugby Championship games and kicked off their end-of-season tour with big wins over the USA, Wales and Italy.
Earlier today, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster named his match-day squad for the Saturday evening encounter. Sam Whitelock captains New Zealand and is joined in the second row by Brodie Retallick. TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett are the starting half-backs.
Lineup 🔥 pic.twitter.com/quWbQCXrct
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) November 11, 2021
Andy Farrell makes one change to his Ireland team
Ireland have responded with a similar kitchen sink selection. Farrell has obviously looked at these first two autumn internationals as the perfect opportunity to test his main guys before possibly resting a few for the Argentina game.
Henderson replaces Tadhg Beirne in the second row and starts there alongside James Ryan. Beirne drops to the bench, where he is joined by Herring. Dan Sheehan drops out of the 23 after making his debut against Japan.
Andrew Conway and James Lowe get starts on the right and left wing, respectively, while it is an all Leinster back row of Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan. Johnny Sexton captains Ireland and starts alongside scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park.
Ireland team to face New Zealand
15. Hugo Keenan
14. Andrew Conway
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Bundee Aki
11. James Lowe
10. Johnny Sexton
9. Jamison Gibson-Park1. Andrew Porter
2. Ronán Kelleher
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Iain Henderson
5. James Ryan
6. Caelan Doris
7. Josh van der Flier
8. Jack Conan
Subs: Rob Herring, Cian Healy, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Beirne, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Joey Carbery, Keith Earls.
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