Ulster trio start as O'Driscoll eyes another Irish record

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ulster's Luke Marshall, Chris Henry and Andrew Trimble will start for Ireland in Sunday's Six Nations opener at home to Scotland as new coach Joe Schmidt looks to quickly banish last season's tournament from memory.





The Ulster trio, who helped the province reach this season's Heineken Cup quarter-finals as the only unbeaten team, are the only changes from the Irish side that went agonisingly close to beating New Zealand in November.

Marshall edges out Gordon D'Arcy, who wound back the clock against the Kiwis in one of his best performances in years but was ill earlier this week, and line up at centre alongside Brian O'Driscoll, who will become Ireland's most-capped player.

Henry replaces Sean O'Brien, set to miss the championship through injury, while Trimble, who has racked up 50 caps for his country but was out of favour during last year's Six Nations, was chosen ahead of Leinster winger Fergus McFadden.

With fellow wingers Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls and Luke Fitzgerald out through injury and Simon Zebo and Craig Gilroy just back from layoffs, Schmidt backed Trimble to deal with the physical threat of Scotland's Sean Maitland and Sean Lamont.

"Obviously there's a few guys who aren't around but it's a highly contested position and Andrew's got first run at it. I think he's a relatively physical winger and defensively he can close down an attack," Schmidt told a news conference.

"There's a bit of quality in both their wings, they're both big guys, plus with (Stuart) Hogg running in from the back, a genuine speed merchant, it's a nice big job for Andrew Trimble, Dave Kearney and Rob Kearney."

Ireland endured their worst Six Nations championship in 14 years last season, winnings just one game and narrowly avoiding a first wooden spoon since a whitewash in 1998 by finishing ahead of France on points difference.

The poor performance spelled the end of Declan Kidney's five-year tenure and two-time Heineken Cup winning coach Schmidt took charge in November when Ireland lost badly to Australia but were 30 seconds away from a famous victory over world champions New Zealand.

O'Driscoll, who captained Ireland more than twice as many times as anyone else and is by some distance the country's record try scorer, will overtake Ronan O'Gara to become the most capped player when he makes his 129th appearance.

"He's been almost effervescent really, there's been a real spring in his step. I think he's pretty understated in the fact that he will be Ireland's most capped test player," Schmidt said. "I know to him, every one is incredibly special."

Team:

15-Rob Kearney, 14-Dave Kearney, 13-Brian O'Driscoll, 12-Luke Marshall, 11-Andrew Trimble, 10-Johnny Sexton, 9-Conor Murray, 8-Jamie Heaslip, 7-Chris Henry, 6-Peter O'Mahony, 5-Paul O'Connell (captain), 4-Devin Toner, 3-Mike Ross, 2-Rory Best, 1-Cian Healy

Replacements: 16-Sean Cronin, 17-Jack McGrath, 18-Martin Moore, 19-Dan Tuohy, 20-Tommy O'Donnell, 21-Isaac Boss, 22-Paddy Jackson, 23-Fergus McFadden.

(Editing by Mitch Phillips)


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