Earls Takes His Place

Keith Earls came through training today with flying colours and will take his place on the Ireland replacement bench for Saturday’s game against South Africa.

Earls had been bracketed with Andrew Trimble and Paddy Wallace pending a fitness test, but as anticipated once he showed no ill effects from yesterday evening's training session at the Aviva, he was confirmed as the number 22 on the match day squad alongside his Munster colleagues, Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, Denis Leamy and Donnacha Ryan.

South Africa have named a side that includes Jean de Villiers who is thought doubtful suffering as he is from a groin strain.

Ireland: R Kearney; T Bowe, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Best, T Buckley; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; S Ferris, D Wallace, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Cronin, T Court, D Ryan, D Leamy, P Stringer, R O'Gara, K Earls.

South Africa: Gio Aplon; Bjorn Basson, Zane Kirchner, Jean de Villiers/Patrick Lambie, Bryan Habana; Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar; Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis; Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield; Deon Stegmann*, Juan Smith, Pierre Spies. Replacements: Chiliboy Ralepelle, CJ van der Linde, Flip van der Merwe. Willem Alberts/Keegan Daniel, Francois Hougaard, Adi Jacobs, Patrick Lambie/Lwazi Mvovo.