Schmidt will place his faith in Murphy
JORDI Murphy will slot straight into the Ireland team when they look to bounce back from defeat to Japan against Russia on Thursday (11.15am UK time), joining Johnny Sexton in Joe Schmidt’s starting XV.
The Ulster back-row forward (below) arrived in Kobe yesterday and, following training this morning, the 28-year-old will be named to start at No.8 in what will be a muchchanged side.
An openside by trade, his two previous starts for Ireland have come at the base of the scrum and he’ll be joined in the back-row by Rhys Ruddock and Peter O’Mahony, the latter being the only holdover in the pack that started last time out.
Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, John Ryan, Tadhg Beirne and Jean Kleyn will all come in.
Sexton is back having missed out against Japan, starting at 10, with Leinster colleague Luke McGrath
his scrum-half.
Rob Kearney, Keith Earls and Garry Ringrose all go again, with Bundee Aki and Andrew Conway also coming into the side.
Murphy was only called into the squad over the weekend to replace the injured Jack Conan but will have long since passed through the mandatory 48-hour stand-down period between landing at the World Cup and being able to take part in his first game come Thursday.
He had been due to take off for South Africa today but was pulled from provincial action last weekend once the severity of Conan’s foot problem became clear.
Ireland’s only full training of the week took place overnight, an open session with the Kobelco Steelers.
EXPECTED IRELAND TEAM TO FACE RUSSIA: R Kearney, A Conway, G Ringrose, B Aki, K Earls, J Sexton, L McGrath, D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan, T Beirne, J Kleyn, R Ruddock, P O’Mahony, J Murphy.