ireland-rugby.com

Ireland have yet again named an unchanged starting line-up to play England at Croke Park from the side that beat Italy recently.

Paddy Wallace is fit and will join O’Driscoll at centre, O’Driscoll will earn his 91st cap.

Mick O’Driscoll steps on to the bench as second row cover in place of Malcolm O’Kelly

Ronan O’Gara joins an elite club consisting of Malcolm O’Kelly, John Hayes and Brian O’Driscoll to win his 90th cap.

Paul O’Connell meanwhile earns his 60th cap!

IRELAND TEAM & REPLACEMENTS (v England, 2009 RBS 6 Nations Championship, Croke Park, Saturday, February 28, kick-off 5.30pm):
15 - Robert Kearney (UCD - Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Brian O’Driscoll (UCD - Leinster) (capt)
12 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena - Ulster)
11 - Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College - Leinster)
10 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution - Munster)
9 - Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin - Munster)
1 - Marcus Horan (Shannon - Munster)
2 - Jerry Flannery (Shannon - Munster)
3 - John Hayes (Bruff- Munster)
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution - Munster)
5 - Paul O’Connell (Young Munster - Munster)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon - Ulster)
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen - Munster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas - Leinster)

Replacements:
16 - Rory Best (Banbridge - Ulster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone - Ulster)
18 - Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution - Munster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution - Munster)
20 - Peter Stringer (Shannon - Munster)
21 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne - Leinster)
22 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

Irish Colleges and England Students have both announced the squads for this Friday’s game.

IRISH COLLEGES SQUAD (v England Students, City of Derry RFC, Friday, February 27, kick-off 7.30pm):
Forwards -

Mike Storey (UL/ULBohemians), Rob Sweeney (SBS/St. Mary’s College RFC), Mark Hamilton (DIT/Terenure College RFC), Cian Culleton (Sallynoggin FE/Blackrock College RFC), Batt Duggan (Garda Colllege/UL Bohemians), Robin Copeland (DBS/St. Mary’s College), Ben Reilly (DCU/Suttonians), David Houston (PSNI/City of Derry), John Downey (Sallynoggin FE/Greystones), John Dever (Garda College/Terenure College RFC), Andrew Kerr (UUJ/Rainey Old Boys), Eoghan Nihill (Blackhall PLC/Wanderers)

Backs -
Sean Treacy (DCU/Clontarf), Andrew Semple (UUJ/City of Derry), Brian Collins (IT Blanchardstown/Old Belvedere), Mark O’Connor (UUJ/City of Derry), Sean Joyce (NUIG/Connemara), Lorcan Kavanagh (DCU/Lansdowne), Kevin Lynch (CSN/Dolphin), Craig Morrin (ITTallaght/St. Mary’s College), Daragh Fanning (IT Tallagh/St. Mary’s College), Mark Geraghty (DCU/Greystones), Paul Harte (Athlone IT/Buccaneers)

England Students Squad:

Forwards: Billy Moss (Exeter), Jon Moyce (VC) (St. Mary’s), James Hall (Liverpool), Andy Bridgemen (Bristol), Adrian Griffiths (Bath), Ian Kench (Oxford), Ben Maidment (Durham), Simon Pitfield (Loughborough), Rob Wood (Loughborough), Tom Malaney (Cambridge), Adam Bellamy (Bristol), Tom Fidler (Bath)

Backs: Grant Pointer (Loughborough), Toby Henry (Oxford), Sean Morris (Oxford), Phil Ellis (Hertfordshire) (capt), Dave Butler (Bristol), Drew Locke (Northumbria), Paul Trendall (Loughborough), William Nelson (Nottingham), Rob Springhall (Nottingham), Alan Awcock (UWIC)

Jon Skurr has named a 12-man squad for the World Cup Sevens in Dubai.

Ireland open their RWC Sevens campaign in a tough pool, starting with Samoa on March 5th and then Australia and Portugal the following day.

IRELAND RUGBY WORLD CUP SEVENS SQUAD (Dubai, March 5-7):

Gary Brown (Blackrock College - Leinster)
Kieran Campbell ( Galwegians - Connacht) (capt)
Brian Carney (Clonakilty - Munster)
James Coughlan (Dolphin - Munster)
Conan Doyle (Garryowen - Munster)
Tom Gleeson (Cork Constitution - Munster)
Eoghan Grace (Shannon - Munster)
Felix Jones (Old Belvedere - Leinster)
Paul Marshall (Belfast Harlequins - Ulster)
Daniel Riordan (Buccaneers - Connacht)
Kyle Tonetti (Blackrock College - Leinster)
Brian Tuohy (Cornish Pirates)

Ireland and England are the only two unbeaten teams in the RBS Under 20’s Six Nations Championship and they meet on Friday at Dubarry Park in Athlone.

England are tipped to retain the crown that they took from Ireland last season, but Ireland are fielding a far stronger team this year and will hope to overcome England.

Mark Cueto (and many England fans) fear that the referee for the Ireland v England match at Croke Park this week could be influenced by several factors.

Not least is the amazing Croke Park atmosphere with Ireland fans in full song as they march their way through this Six Nations, but second to that is England’s poor discipline record which by now precedes them!

England have received eight yellow cards in their last three games, and in their last game gave away 18 points in penalties to Wales!

An enlarged squad of 36 has been named ahead of the RBS Six Nations Game against England on Saturday. The match day team from the Italy game are joined by members of the A team who beat Scotland A last week.

There are 17 back and 19 forwards in the panel.

IRELAND SQUAD (v England):

Backs (17):

Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins - Ulster)
Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College - Leinster)
Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne - Leinster)
Keith Earls (Young Munster - Munster)
Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College - Leinster)
Shane Horgan (Boyne - Leinster)
Robert Kearney (UCD - Leinster)
Geordan Murphy (Leicester)
Eoin Reddan (Wasps)
Brian O’Driscoll (UCD - Leinster)
Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution - Munster)
Tomas O’Leary (Dolphin - Munster)
Jonthan Sexton (St. Mary’s College - Leinster)
Peter Stringer (Shannon - Munster)
Andrew Trimble (Ballymena -Ulster)
Paddy Wallace (Ballymena - Ulster)
Forwards (19):

Rory Best (Banbridge - Ulster)
Tony Buckley (Shannon - Munster)
Bob Casey (London Irish)
Ryan Caldwell (Dungannon - Ulster)
Tom Court (Malone - Ulster)
Stephen Ferris (Dungannon - Ulster)
Jerry Flannery (Shannon - Munster)
John Hayes (Bruff - Munster)
Cian Healy (Clontarf - Leinster)
Jamie Heaslip (Naas - Leinster)
Marcus Horan (Shannon - Munster)
Bernard Jackman (Clontarf - Leinster)
Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College - Leinster)
Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution - Munster)
Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution - Munster)
Paul O’Connell (Young Munster - Munster)
Mick O’Driscoll (Cork Constitution - Munster)
Alan Quinlan (Shannon - Munster)
David Wallace (Garryowen - Munster)

The Irish team will host the European Qualifiers this weekend at the Irish Wheelchair Association  Sport Centre in Clontarf.

Irish Wheelchair Rugby - European Qualifying Rounds -

Ireland v Czech Republic, Friday, February 20, 6pm
Czech Rep. v France, Saturday, February 21, 11am
France v Ireland, Saturday, February 21, 2.30pm
Ireland v Czech Rep., Saturday, February 21, 5.45pm
Czech Rep. v France, Sunday, February 22, 10.30am
Ireland v France, Sunday, February 22, 1.45pm

All matches will be played at the IWA Sports Centre in Clontarf.

Yesterday Italian Andrea Masi, was cited for the dangerous tackle on Rob Kearney that saw him in the sin-bin in under a minute against Ireland. Today he was handed a three week suspension for that tackle.

The ban rules Masi out of the Scotland game, but he will return in time for the clash with Wales on the 14th March.

Ireland will take on England at Donnybrook on February 27th, and a 36-man squad has been announced. The squad was selected by club coaches during the AIB League season, with coaches asked to submit names of opposition players who impressed them.

The squad includes 17 players from Leinster clubs, 12 from Munster clubs, four from Connacht and three from Ulster. The squad will be reduced to 22 and a final team will be announced ahead of the game.

AIB CLUB INTERNATIONAL SQUAD 2009:

FORWARDS (20) -

Colin Atkinson (Belfast Harlequins)
Ron Boucher (Lansdowne)
Kevin Croke (UCD)
Aaron Dundon (Clontarf)
Alex Dunlop (Terenure)
Martin Gately (Highfield)
Dave Harty (Dolphin)
Hugh Hogan (St. Mary’s College)
Neilus Keogh (UCC)
Richie Leyden (Old Belvedere)
Alan Maher (Lansdowne)
Brett McNamee (Dungannon)
Kevin Moran (Buccaneers)
Colm Murphy (Lansdowne)
Merle O’Connell (Cork Constitution)
Barry O’Mahony (Dolphin)
Robert Quinn (Lansdowne)
Simon Shawe (Ballymena)
Jamie Stephens (Galwegians)
Marc Warburton (Old Wesley)

BACKS (16) -

Tadhg Bennett (Shannon)
Philip Brophy (St. Mary’s College)
Darin Claasen (Corinthians)
Derek Corcoran (Young Munster)
Sam Cronin (UCC)
Ruairi Cushion (Old Belvedere)
Eamon Fitzgerald (Old Belvedere)
Darragh Fitzpatrick (Blackrock)
Alan Gaughan (Buccaneers)
Barry Keeshan (Dolphin)
Richie Lane (Cork Constitution)
Killian Lett (UCD)
Fionn McLoughlin (Shannon)
Niall O’Brien (Clontarf)
Breffni O’Donnell (Clontarf)
Ed Torrie (UL Bohemians)

The win against Italy didn’t only put Ireland at the top of the Six Nations table (on points difference to Wales), but also saw them move up the IRB World Rankings to sixth.

IRB WORLD RANKINGS (As of Monday, February 16):

1(1) NEW ZEALAND 92.68 rating points
2(2) SOUTH AFRICA 89.45
3(3) AUSTRALIA 85.86
4(4) WALES 82.51
5(5) ARGENTINA 81.56
6(7) IRELAND 80.49
7(6) ENGLAND 80.37
8(8) FRANCE 79.10
9(9) SCOTLAND 75.47
10(10) FIJI 75.24
11(11) ITALY 73.28
12(12) SAMOA 72.57
13(13) TONGA 70.05
14(15) CANADA 69.12
15(14) GEORGIA 68.48
16(17) ROMANIA 68.17
17(16) JAPAN 68.05
18(18) RUSSIA 65.32
19(19) USA 63.55
20(20) URUGUAY 62.78

Several Ireland players have already voiced the concern that England will be looking for revenge at Croke Park on the 28th, and Ireland will certainly need to be more organised and composed than they were against Italy at the weekend.