Jordan Larmour will start at full-back on Sunday for Ireland after Joe Schmidt named his Ireland side for their crunch World Cup opener with Scotland in Yokohama.
Larmour comes in to the No.15 jersey – where he also started against France during the 2019 Guinness Six Nations – as Rob Kearney misses out with injury while Andrew Conway is on the wing as Keith Earls also failed to prove his fitness in time.
They join Jacob Stockdale in a relatively inexperienced back three but elsewhere in the back-line Ireland are well-stocked with veterans.
Conor Murray and Jonathan Sexton are the half-backs while Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose line up in midfield even though Robbie Henshaw is also out injured.
Up front Rory Best captains the side in the front row with his two British & Irish Lions teammates Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy either side.
James Ryan and Iain Henderson are paired in the second row with Peter O’Mahony and Josh van der Flier either side of CJ Stander in the back row.
Only four players of this match-day squad (Henderson, Murray, Healy, Best) were in the match-day 23 against Argentina four years ago, in Ireland’s last Rugby World Cup match.
Best will captain Ireland for the 35th time. Only Brian O’Driscoll (83) and Keith Wood (36) have captained the team in more test matches.
The bench covers sees Tadhg Beirne and Jack Conan lying in wait, while in the backs Jack Carty gets the nod ahead of Joey Carbery and Chris Farrell is No.23.
Ireland team to face Scotland: 15. Jordan Larmour 14. Andrew Conway 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Bundee Aki 11. Jacob Stockdale 10. Johnny Sexton 9. Conor Murray
1. Cian Healy 2. Rory Best (capt.) 3. Tadhg Furlong 4. Iain Henderson 5. James Ryan 6. Peter O’Mahony 7. Josh Van der Flier 8. CJ Stander
Replacements:
16. Niall Scannell 17. David Kilcoyne 18. Andrew Porter 19. Tadhg Beirne 20. Jack Conan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Jack Carty 23. Chris Farrell
