Friday 27 February 2015 15:25, UK
Jack McGrath has held off the challenge of fit-again Cian Healy and starts for Ireland against England in Sunday’s crunch Six Nations match.
Leinster back-rower Jordi Murphy has slotted in for the injured No 8 Jamie Heaslip in the only change from Ireland's 18-11 victory over France on February 14.
In the absence of the injured Healy, McGrath has proved his Test pedigree and earned sufficient trust from boss Joe Schmidt to retain the number one shirt.
Ireland are gunning for a 10th consecutive victory to equal their all-time win record in Dublin on Sunday, and the highly-influential Healy will doubtless be deployed off the bench in the final quarter.
Healy took a seat on the bench for Ireland's victory over France, returning to the Test fray following his severe hamstring tear in September.
Head coach Schmidt has resisted the temptation to restore the 27-year-old to his starting line-up, especially given a perceived dominance over England tighthead Dan Cole.
Barcelona-born back-rower Murphy impressed in the tournament-opening 26-3 victory over Italy, when Heaslip missed out through shoulder and knee trouble.
Now the 23-year-old rising star of Leinster has his chance to confirm his Test arrival on the occasion of his seventh cap.
Tommy O'Donnell has recovered from concussion to take a seat on the bench, while fully-fit Eoin Reddan replaces Isaac Boss as the reserve scrum-half.
Ireland and England are the Six Nations' only remaining unbeaten sides, with Schmidt's men gunning to retain their title and Stuart Lancaster's side seeking a fifth straight win over the Irish.
Schmidt insisted McGrath has been selected on merit.
"Jack has been the stand-out player at times," said Schmidt, confirming the call at loosehead came down to performance level alone rather tha match-fitness.
"We did have temptation in a couple of areas, but when it comes to players who are performing in their slot, it's pretty hard to go past them in terms of selection.
"But, that said, no one owns a jersey. There's always temptation to change things up but I think Jack has done a super job.
"He was probably the stand-out player for us against SA, and he has played his way right through. I know that the coaching staff have genuine faith in him, and Cian is still very short of game time.
"Each time he gets game time he will keep improving. We had to recess our meeting this week to have a bit of spell to sort out those decisions in our own minds that we're talking about right now.”
Schmidt admitted that the absence of Heaslip is a major blow for his team.
"We will miss Jamie Heaslip's experience to be honest; he's very much a big-game player with big-game temperament," said Schmidt. "That allows us to be a little bit more organised.
"So it's a big challenge for Peter O'Mahony and Sean O'Brien to help Jordi map his way around the pitch.
"Jordi Murphy's very quiet, he doesn't really say a lot, gets on with the job and other people, he's a workaholic around the pitch.
"He gets through a lot of work both sides of the ball, and that's important."
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Jared Payne, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Connor Murray, 1 Jack McGrath, 2 Rory Best, 3 Mike Ross, 4 Devin Toner, 5 Paul O'Connell, 6 Peter O'Mahony, 7 Sean O'Brien, 8 Jordi Murphy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Martin Moore, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Tommy O'Donnell, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Felix Jones.
