by Brendan Cole
Ronan O’Gara and Conor Murray have been handed the starting half-back jerseys for Ireland’s crucial Rugby World Cup Pool C showdown with Italy on Sunday.
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There was widespread speculation that head coach Declan Kidney would make the switch after the pair trained extensively with the first team this week. He confirmed that they would start at this afternoon’s press conference in New Zealand.
O’Gara played at out-half in Ireland’s most recent game against Russia at out-half, steering a largely second string side to a convincing win.
But he effectively replaces Jonathan Sexton, who started Ireland’s superb win over Australia and the opening win against USA. Sexton has been struggling to land kicks at goal since the beginning of the tournament while O’Gara has the second best kicking success rate in the tournament behind South Africa’s Morne Steyn.
Kidney is adamant that O’Gara has not been picked for his place kicking, citing his performance alongside Murray in the tense last quarter of the Australia game as the key factor in his decision.
He said: “Ronan and Conor went well in the last 20 minutes against Australia. Ronan went well against Russia as well. This is the right combination for us against Italy. They’ve played a few times together now.
“Ronan has been place kicking well, but if Jonathan Sexton was starting on Sunday it wouldn’t worry me. I’d hate to go down the road that we’re picking Ronan because of his place kicking.
“He’s too good a player to be saying that about him while Jonny’s place kicking is not of concern to me.”
Eoin Reddan, who partnered Sexton for the Australia game, also misses out. He and Sexton are picked on the bench.
Aside from the half-backs, Kidney has also opted to stick with the team that faced Australia. That means Keith Earls retaining his place on the left wing despite a strong challenge from Andrew Trimble, who impressed against Russia and during Ireland’s warmup series. The Ulsterman is the third back on the bench.
Tommy Bowe, recovered from a minor calf problem, is on the other wing with Rob Kearney at full-back. As usual, Brian O’Driscoll is at outside centre with Gordon D’Arcy inside him in the number 12 jersey.
Kidney has also re-selected the entire pack that started the Australia game with Paul O’Connell overcoming a hamstring problem that prevented him from training fully during the week to take his place in the second row. Donncha O’Callaghan is the other second row.
Cian Healy, Rory Best and Mike Ross will start in a front row that Italy have signalled they will challenge at every scrum opportunity with Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip continuing at blindside, openside and number eight respectively.
Sean Cronin and Tom Court are the reserve front rowers with Munster duo Donnacha Ryan and Denis Leamy providing cover for the rest of the forwards.
The winner of the clash is virtually certain to progress from the pool and in Ireland’s case, victory will most likely mean a quarter-final clash with Six Nations rivals Wales, who play Fiji on Sunday.
But Ireland are likely to end up missing out on a quarter-final place if they fail to beat Italy and could yet rue the failure to secure a bonus point in the opening match against USA.
Kidney has repeatedly insisted that Italy has always been seen as the key match inside the camp.
“Everyone was talking about the Australia game coming into the World Cup, but in our minds we always knew Italy was the big one.
“Australia was the attractive one to win, Italy was the necessary one to win. The law of averages said Australia would beat Italy in the first match.
“Unless you do a New Zealand and get 15 points from your first three games, it was always going to come down to this. England and South Africa find themselves in the same situation – three wins from three – yet are also in cup final situations.
“If we were to go out at this stage, well that’s life. The Australia win gave us momentum and that was carried on against Russia.”
IRELAND team to play Italy in RWC Pool C at Otago Stadium on Sunday, 2 October at 8.30am (Irish time):
15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll, 12 Gordon D’Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Ronan O’Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 1 Cian Healy, 2 Rory Best, 3 Mike Ross, 4 Donncha O’Callaghan, 5 Paul O’Connell, 6 Stephen Ferris, 7 Sean O’Brien, 8 Jamie Heaslip
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Jonathan Sexton, 22 Andrew Trimble