One change for Ireland against Australia

Downtime

Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has made one change to the side for Saturday's clash with Australia (Subiaco Oval, Perth, 11.00am), bringing in Girvan Dempsey for Geordan Murphy at full-back.

Murphy drops to the replacements bench, where there is one other change from the matchday 22 for the second Test against New Zealand - London Wasps out-half Jeremy Staunton gets the nod ahead of Denis Hickie.


[FONT=tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]IRELAND TEAM AND REPLACEMENTS (v Australia, Subiaco Oval, Perth, kick-off 11.00am Irish time, Saturday, June 24):[/FONT]

[FONT=tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]15 - Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College/Leinster) 65 caps
14 - Shane Horgan (Lansdowne/Leinster) 47
13 - Brian O'Driscoll (Blackrock College/Leinster) (captain) 66
12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster) 22
11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 8
10 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster) 62
9 - Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster) 68
1 - Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster) 39
2 - Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster) 8
3 - John Hayes (Bruff/Munster) 64
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 26
5 - Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster) 35
6 - Neil Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 4
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster) 29
8 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster) 13[/FONT]

[FONT=tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Replacements:[/FONT]

[FONT=tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]16 - Rory Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 3
17 - Bryan Young (Ballymena/Ulster) 1
18 - Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster) 6
19 - Keith Gleeson (St. Mary's College/Leinster) 24
20 - Isaac Boss (Ballymena/Ulster) 1
21 - Jeremy Staunton (London Wasps) 3
22 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers) 41[/FONT]

[FONT=tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Referee: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]
Touch Judges: Steve Walsh, Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)[/FONT]

Would like to have seen Murphy go to the wing and Demspey in full back.

carlowboy

Excellent call. Girv finally given his chance to shine and Murphy dropped after a shoddy performance against the ABs.

mikedragon32

I reckon that's the team to beat the Aussies.

Needs to get some of the boys off the bench in the second half though...

Don't know the ref, is he a recent addition to the IRB panel?

Downtime

mikedragon32 wrote:

I reckon that's the team to beat the Aussies.

Needs to get some of the boys off the bench in the second half though...

Don't know the ref, is he a recent addition to the IRB panel?

No he's been around a while - up and down - not a bad ref though. I'd be worried if ROG gets injured (which in itself might not be a bad thing)

Funkstard

Downtime wrote:

No he's been around a while - up and down - not a bad ref though. I'd be worried if ROG gets injured (which in itself might not be a bad thing)

I'd be interested in seeing Staunton thrown in there to see how he plays. We're forever moaning about the outhalf situation, well, here's a golden chance to try something new. It is only a test at the end of the day, and we are supposed to be working towards '07. I'd happily take a loss at the expense of blooding a few new players (even better...I'd love to see them come on and take charge and play out of their skin)

RuggieBear

Downtime wrote:

No he's been around a while - up and down - not a bad ref though.

what i would be worried about is steve walsh on the line beside shane Horgan.

walsh is an arrogant unproffessional joke and should have been sacked from reffing.

he had a run in with england during the 2003 world cup and with shaggy during the lions test.

He can't control his bias

lazystudent

Walsh is a bit of twat alright but Deaker is a brutal referee, uncertain and bad at making quick decisions. Good to see Staunton in but I reckon that our biggest problem at outhalf is still a defensive one. I've seen Staunton wave several attackers through when he plays for Wasps and ROG, excellent as he is, is not reliable defensively as Luke MacAllister found out to his delight. But having watched fairly shambolic England performances I think that we have a pretty good opportunity to beat the Aussies which would round off the season nicely

RuggieBear

thought deaker had a poor lions tour....;)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

TheOC

True he's a typical Kiwi....but didn't he ref the Aussie Ireland game where we actually beat the Convicts!?! (in Lansdowne Rd 18-9)

We've been lucky to get New Zealanders as referee's in recent tests (past few years)...I think we have the group to beat the Aussie's but its up to us, if we show that we want it (first scrum, first lineout, first ruck, first tackle) then I think Deaker will be 'backing' us in a way!!

From what I hear from Down Under, the Irish are the favourites!!