August Update

Commiserations are extended to Munster flanker Tommy O'Donnell whose World Cup hopes have been shattered by injury. Andrew Trimble's aspirations of appearing in the tournament also appear to be hanging by a thread. Meanwhile, the Irish can take some wicked comfort from the fact that their recent dismantling of a Wales XV in Cardiff seems to have brought the curtain down on Mike Phillips, a fine scrum half who has been a thorn in our flesh on two or three previous occasions, not least in the last World Cup. Phillips has been excluded from the Wales World Cup squad after failing to stem the green tide on Saturday past. Hibbard and Hook have also been hooked from the Wales short list.  

Now the Irish are deep in preparation for their pre-tournament skirmish avec Scotland in the Fair City on Saturday the fifteenth. Joe Schmidt really does like to leave his team announcements until long after his opponnets have declared their hand. This might seem shrewd, but this is not a truly important fixture, so I wonder if Joe really needs to be so coy about his starting fifteen. Anyhow, here are the gents who have belatedly been chosen to audition against the Scots. The latter will have a point to prove after being emphatically defeated back in March in Edinburgh, while it will be interesting to see how debutant Jack Conan copes in the back row and how Simon Zebo performs at full back. The Ireland team is:

15 Simon Zebo, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Jared Payne, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Ian Madigan, 9 Isaac Boss, 1 Dave Kilcoyne, 2 Sean Cronin, 3 Mike Ross, 4 Devin Toner, 5 Dan Tuohy, 6 Jack Conan, 7 Chris Henry, 8 Sean O'Brien (captain).

Forward replacements: Richardt Strauss, Michael Bent, Nathan White, Paul O'Connell, Jordi Murphy.

Back replacements: Eoin Reddan, Paddy Jackson, Dave Kearney.