Ireland change three for Slam decider

Munster hooker Jerry Flannery, Leinster No.8 Jamie Heaslip and Munster scrum-half Tomas O’Leary all return to the starting line-up. Flannery replaces Ulster’s Rory Best, while Heaslip, who scored the winning try against Scotland at Murray field, slots in at the base of the scrum in place of Munster’s Denis Leamy.

O’Leary comes in to the side in place of his Munster team-mate Peter Stringer, who will consider himself unlucky after picking up the Man of the Match award against Scotland last weekend.

Ireland will head into the game knowing that the championship is in their hands, with a Grand Slam up for grabs should the win and the championship should they lose by less than 13 points.

Kidney has chosen a settled side again for this game, with only one change evident from the side that began the tournament against France a month ago.

“We’ve gone to the well a few times with these lads but they’re still good and thirsty,” he said. “We’ll head for Cardiff on Thursday and weigh up how much time we need to spend on the pitch and how much time we need to rest up bodies. It seems as though every game we have played in so far has been harder than the last and we’ve had to play a little bit better each time.

“The players have fronted up so well. The gaps are so small I wouldn’t try to justify it. You’ve got to try to go with the chemistry and look at the game ahead of you. What happened was what I knew would happen when I changed the squad.”

Kidney maintains that this selection has nothing to do with a “horses for courses” mentality, playing up the strengths of a squad that he hopes will do him proud, even if they don’t win in Cardiff.

“Four came in and did very well and that has made selection very difficult,” he said. “The squad has become stronger but that makes selection harder. It’s not horses for courses. That can be a bracket. Our aim is to be as good as we can be on any given day.

“Sometimes the spectacle is not one that pleases everyone but that is credit to the way the opposition play. If we are beaten in Cardiff and walk away with nothing as long as we can look at ourselves and say we gave it our best shot, that won’t be such a bad place to be.”

Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O’Driscoll (Leinster, captain), G D’Arcy (Leinster), L Fitzgerald (Leinster); R O’Gara (Munster), T O’Leary (Munster); M Horan (Munster), J Flannery (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster).Replacements:  R Best (Ulster), T Court (Ulster), M O’Driscoll (Munster), D Leamy (Munster), P Stringer (Munster), P Wallace (Ulster), G Murphy (Leicester