Ireland Team To face All Blacks In World Cup Quarter-Final

The Ireland coaching group have named the team for Saturday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand at the Tokyo Stadium.

Eight Munster players have been named in the squad as Keith Earls, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander all start with Niall Scannell, Dave Kilcoyne, Tadhg Beirne and Joey Carbery among the replacements.

Murray and Johnny Sexton will become Ireland’s most capped half-back pairing on Saturday, overtaking Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer, when they are paired together for their 56th international game. They first lined out together in Ireland’s opening game of the Rugby World Cup 2011 against the USA.

Rory Best captains the side with Cian Healy and Tadgh Furlong joining him in the front row.  Iain Henderson and James Ryan are named at lock with O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier and Stander in the backrow.

Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose start in the centre and Rob Kearney is named at full-back with Earls and Jacob Stockdale on the wings.

The replacements for Saturday’s game are Scannell, Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Beirne, Rhys Ruddock, Luke McGrath, Carbery and Jordan Larmour.

The game will be televised by EIR and RTE (ROI) and ITV (NI) and live radio commentary from RTE Radio (ROI) and BBC (NI).

IRELAND team to play New Zealand, Quarter-final RWC19, Tokyo Stadium, Saturday 19th  October, 2019 (KO: 19.15 / 11.15 Irish Time)

15 Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 94 caps

14 Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 81 caps

13 Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster) 27 caps

12 Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster) 39 caps

11 Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster) 24 caps

10 Jonathan Sexton (St Marys College/Leinster) 87 caps

9 Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 77 caps

1 Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 94 caps

2 Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) 123 caps CAPTAIN

3 Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) 40 caps

4 Iain Henderson (Queens University/Ulster) 52 caps

5 James Ryan (UCD/Leinster) 22 caps

6 Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster) 63 caps

7 Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster) 22 caps

8 CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster) 37 caps

Replacements

16 Niall Scannell (Dolphin/Munster) 19 caps

17 Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster) 35 caps

18 Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster) 22 caps

19 Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster) 12 caps

20 Rhys Ruddock (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 25 caps

21 Luke McGrath (UCD/Leinster) 18 caps

22 Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster) 21 caps

23 Jordan Larmour (St Mary’s College/Leinster) 20 caps