Simon Lewis
DECLAN Kidney is putting his faith in fly-half Jonny Sexton to engineer the Ireland performance that will be good enough to stop England fulfilling their first Grand Slam since 2003 at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Sexton's inclusion at the expense of Ronan O'Gara is one of two changes made by Ireland coach Kidney from the team beaten 19-13 by Wales last weekend, also dropping Luke Fitzgerald from his matchday squad, switching Keith Earls from the wing to the vacant full-back berth and bringing Andrew Trimble in to take over Earls' No.11 jersey.
There also remains a doubt at scrum-half, where Eoin Reddan was named subject to approval from a neurologist under the terms of the International Rugby Board's “Return To Play” protocols regarding concussions. Reddan was caught fully in the face by a Welsh clearance kick he was attempting to block in the opening minute and should he fail to pass fit, Peter Stringer will start with Isaac Boss coming onto the replacements' bench in the absence of the injured Tomás O'Leary.
Dropping O'Gara, though, will be the major talking point. Sexton started the first two games of the Six Nations campaign against Italy and France but was guilty of below-par game management with his apparent reluctance to kick for touch and instead keep ball in hand.
In Rome, he made way for O'Gara, with the more experienced out-half rescuing Ireland with a late drop goal that averted a shock defeat to the Italians. Against France, the Munster star again brought order to the Irish gameplan as a second-half sub, giving Ireland the field position that very nearly brought a winning comeback over the 2010 Grand Slam winners but for a late knock on frm Sean Cronin with the try-line begging.
Kidney then decided to restore O'Gara to the starting line-up for a more structured approach to the Scotland game yet there was no loss of attacking verve in Sexton's absence as Ireland once again scored three tries in a hard-fought victory at Murrayfield that saw O'Gara score one of those in a man of the match performance.
O'Gara rightly kept his place to face the Welsh last Saturday in Cardiff and though he was slightly less dominant than in Edinburgh he did little to deserve being called ashore after just 50 minutes at the Millennium Stadium, particularly as Ireland were leading by four points at 13-9.
They would not score again with the move backfiring on Sexton, who before he had settled had sliced a kick to touch that directly led to Mike Phillips' controversial try and then missed a straightforward penalty goal attempt as Ireland went down 19-13.
Defending his decision to continue his rotation policy at fly-half, Kidney said: “We've always said we're blessed with two good 10s, and in the same way that I felt after the French match it felt right to give Ronan a go there and he got the next two, so I feel it’s right to give Jonathan a start this time.”
As for Fitzgerald's demotion following four starts at full-back as cover for the injured Rob Kearney and Geordan Murphy, Kidney said: “If Luke has made any errors recently it's probably because he's tried too hard. He's probably just been over-stretching himself and his timing is just a small bit off.
“Andrew's been knocking on the door for quite some time and Keith has been going well.”
Fitzgerald does not even make the bench and despite the feeling held by many that Fergus McFadden deserved a recall to the replacements, Kidney has kept faith with Paddy Wallace as cover for the backs, despite his error in the dying seconds in Cardiff when he failed to pass outside to Earls for a potentially game-salvaging try, choosing instead to turn inside and run into contact.
IRELAND: K Earls (Munster); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O'Driscoll (Leinster) - captain, G D'Arcy (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster); S O'Brien (Leinster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster).
Replacements: S Cronin (Connacht), T Court (Ulster), L Cullen (Leinster), D Leamy (Munster), P Stringer (Munster), R O'Gara (Munster), P Wallace (Ulster).
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/4QenDlJ0IvA/post.aspx
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