Sport

Kearney named at fullback as Ireland make five changes for Scotland

Kearney named at fullback as Ireland make five changes for Scotland

Rob Kearney has been named to play at full back for Ireland's Six Nations clash with Scotland.

Joe Schmidt has made five changes to the team that suffered defeat to England last weekend.

Four of those changes are due to injury, with Kearny replacing Robbie Henshaw at 15 due to a dead leg.

Elsewhere, Munster's Chris Farrell will start at 13 - replacing Garry Ringrose who picked up a hamstring injury.

Advertisement

The game will be only Farrell's second Six Nations appearance. The centre put in a man-of-the-match performance against Wales in last year's competition before suffering a knee injury in training the following week.

Quinn Roux is set to make his first Six Nations start as he replaces Devin Toner in the second-row. The Leinster lock injured his angle during the England game.

Ultan Dillane is placed on the bench to fill Roux's spot.

CJ Stander, who suffered facial injuries last Saturday, is replaced by Leinster Jack Conan at Number 8.

Advertisement

The only other change sees Sean O'Brien come into the team wearing number 7. The change moves Josh van der Flier down to the bench.

The rest of the team remains the same from the 32-20 England defeat with Keith Earls and Jacob Stockdale on the wings.

Bundee Aki joins Farrell in the centre while Johnny Sexton and Conor Murry start as half-backs.

Captain Rory Best joins Cian Healy and Tadhg Furlong in the front-row with James Ryan partnering Roux in the second-row.

Advertisement

O'Brien and Conan fill out the back-row with Munster skipper Peter O'Mahony.

Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, John Cooney, Joey Carbery and Jordan Larmour all join Dillane and van der Flier on the bench.

Advertisement