Farrell rings the changes as Doris named as Ireland skipper for Italy clash

The sides face off at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday. 

Head coach Andy Farrell runs the rule over his players at Ireland Rugby squad training session at the IRFU High Performance Centre at the Sport Ireland Campus. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Andy Farrell has made six changes to his Ireland for Sunday’s Six Nations clash with Italy in Dublin.

The reigning Grand Slam champions look well set to back up last year’s success but the sense of a coach keeping one eye on the future was evident in the choice of Caelan Doris as his country’s captain for the first time.

Doris was touted as a possible successor to the retired Johnny Sexton as Ireland skipper until the honour was handed to Peter O’Mahony, but the Munster man has not been fully fit this week and will play no part in the second-round tie.

Doris will be the 110th man to captain Ireland.

As for the changes in the pack, Finlay Bealham replaces Tadhg Furlong at tighthead prop, James Ryan replaces Tadhg Beirne in the second row, Ryan Baird takes O’Mahony’s place at blindside flanker and Jack Conan comes in at No. 8 with Doris replacing Josh van der Flier at openside.

The backs see similar movement with Craig Casey starting after being waterboy in Marseille, Stuart McCloskey is a direct replacement for Bundee Aki at inside centre while Jack Conan takes the No.8 slot with Doris assuming what was Josh van der Flier’s place at seven.

It’s a notable amount of change, even if the Italian game is the one where Ireland have routinely shifted their resources, especially since it has been nine days since the Stade Velodrome opener and another two weeks after this until round three.

The theme extends to the bench where Jeremy Loughman, Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson, Harry Byrne and Jordan Larmour come in. The 6-2 split used for France has been followed up with the more traditional 5-3 between forwards and backs.

Ireland (v Italy): H Keenan; C Nash, R Henshaw, S McCloskey, J Lowe; J Crowley, C Casey; A Porter, D Sheehan, F Bealham; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, C Doris, J Conan.

Replacements: R Kelleher, J Loughman, T O’Toole, I Henderson, J van der Flier, J Gibson-Park, J Larmour, H Byrne.

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