Ireland make five changes to team to play Scotland

Jack O'Toole

Ireland will head to Murrayfield this weekend looking to bounce back from a disappointing 32-20 defeat to England last weekend.

Schmidt’s side were outgunned by a dominant England side with Ireland suffering their first defeat to the English at Lansdowne Road since 2013 and their first ever home loss under Joe Schmidt.

The Ireland head coach has responded by bringing Leinster backrow Sean O’Brien into the side for CJ Stander, who may miss up to four weeks with what the IRFU are describing as a facial injury, while Jack Conan will start at number eight with Josh van der Flier dropping to the bench.

Rob Kearney has also been recalled to the side in place of Garry Ringrose who drops out of the matchday squad entirely with a hamstring injury.

Robbie Henshaw also misses the cut after missing training at Carton House on Thursday and is replaced in the starting lineup by Chris Farrell, who will partner Bundee Aki in the Irish midfield, while in the second-row Devin Toner has been ruled out with an ankle injury and he is replaced in the pack by Quinn Roux who has been promoted from the bench.

Meanwhile Ultan Dillane has been drafted in as an injury replacement as Ireland look to get their campaign back on track against Scotland on Saturday.

Ireland captain Rory Best was confident that his side could bounce back from their opening round defeat and added that the team will have to get better across the board if they are to come away with points from Edinburgh this weekend.

“I’ve no doubt that we’ll respond,” said Best.

“We’ll have to just take this on the chin. We were bettered by Englnad in probably all the facets of the game, we’ll get some harsh feedback, some constructive feedback from the coaches and we will build into next week and we know that we’re going to have to better, better physcially and just right across the board – it’s going to be a tough test.”

#GuinnessSixNations

Here's the @IrishRugby team to play @Scotlandteam on Saturday.#TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder #SCOvIRE pic.twitter.com/LQWUS28tMs

— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) February 7, 2019