O'Driscoll holds on to captaincy

In the absence of the injured John Kelly, Brian O'Driscoll has been asked to captain the Irish team for the second time in eight days against Fiji at Lansdowne Road on Sunday.

But, perhaps, there were even bigger winners today as Geordan Murphy, Justin Bishop, Guy Easterby, Marcus Horan and Kieran Dawson were among the nine players to be called into the side.

The Irish team to play Fiji in the permanent tsb international at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, on Sunday, November 17 (kick-off 3.00 pm) is as follows:

15 – Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

14 – Shane Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne)

13 – Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock College) Captain

12 – Kevin Maggs (Bath)

11 – Justin Bishop (London Irish)

10 – David Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon)

9 – Guy Easterby (Llanelli)

1 – Marcus Horan (Munster/Shannon)

2 – Frank Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution)

3 – John Hayes (Munster/Shannon)

4 – Leo Cullen (Leinster/Blackrock College)

5 – Malcolm O’Kelly (Leinster/St. Mary’s College)

6 – Alan Quinlan (Munster/Shannon)

7 – Kieron Dawson (London Irish)

8 – Anthony Foley (Munster/Shannon)

Replacements: 16 – Shane Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), 17 – Reggie

Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), 18 – Mick O’Driscoll (Munster/Cork

Constitution), 19 – Eric Miller (Leinster/Terenure), 20 – Peter Stringer

(Munster/Shannon), 21 – Ronan O’Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution), 22 –

Gordon D’Arcy (Leinster/Lansdowne).

Not considered due to injury: Keith Wood (Harlequins), Simon Easterby

(Llanelli), David Wallace (Munster/Garryowen), Paul O’Connell (Munster/Young

Munster), Bob Casey (London Irish), Jeremy Davidson (Ulster/Dungannon), Rob

Henderson (Munster/Young Munster), Emmet Byrne (Leinster/St. Mary’s

College), Jonathan Bell (Ulster/Dungannon) and John Kelly (Munster/Cork

Constitution).