Jack Crowley will start at fly-half for Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations clash with England at Twickenham on Saturday after Andy Farrell made five changes from last week’s win over Italy and omitted Sam Prendergast from his matchday squad.
Prendergast had started at number 10 in last Saturday’s 10-3 round-two home victory over Italy but was outshone by his chief rival Crowley, who replaced him on 55 minutes with the match tied at 10-10. In tandem with replacement scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, the fresh half-backs were the catalyst for the late charge to the win.
Crowley and Gibson-Park will both start this Saturday in south-west London against an England side aiming to rebound on home soil from their 31-20 Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh seven days earlier.
Ireland’s strong finish to come back from their own opening-round defeat in France has been further reflected in Farrell’s selection for Twickenham with Tadhg Beirne restored to the starting line-up at blindside flanker following his shift off the bench against the Italians, while Tadhg Furlong is reinstated as starting tighthead prop after returning from injury last weekend as a replacement.
The other change sees Josh van der Flier return at openside flanker after sitting out the Italy game following a disappointing outing against France, with captain Caelan Doris reverting to No.8 as Jack Conan moves to the bench.
Craig Casey moves from starting scrum-half to the bench, with head coach Farrell opting for five forwards and three backs having fielded a 6:2 split for the first two rounds.
Yet there is no room for Prendergast with the more versatile Ciaran Frawley handing the 22 jersey as back-up to Crowley as well as offering an option in midfield and at full-back.
Tommy O’Brien is the additional backline replacement having started on the wing against France.
He lost that position to Rob Baloucoune, who made a try-scoring man of the match performance against Italy and retains his place in an unchanged back three also featuring fellow wing James Lowe with Jamie Osborne at full-back.
Stuart McCloskey starts at inside centre as his midfield partnership with Garry Ringrose continues but the outside centre’s knee problem sustained against Italy may have influenced the decision to name three backline replacements rather than two.
Edwin Edogbo is the forward to miss out as a result having made an impressive Ireland debut off the bench last week, while Cormac Izuchukwu, another to lay down a marker at blindside flanker on his Six Nations debut, and tighthead Thomas Clarkson go from starters to a weekend off. Finlay Bealham returns to cover Furlong at tighthead while Tom O’Toole continues to back up starting loosehead Jeremy Loughman.
J Osborne; R Baloucoune, G Ringrose, S McCloskey, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson‑Park; J Loughman, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, J Ryan; T Beirne, J Van der Flier, C Doris.
D Kelleher, T O’Toole, F Bealham, N Timoney, J Conan, C Casey, C Frawley, T O’Brien.
