Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has made wholesale changes to his starting line-up for Sunday’s Rugby World Cup Pool D meeting with Romania at Wembley. “It might have been when his knee hit the ground”.
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“A good day at the office is if we can bank four points, I think what Cheiks (Michael Cheika) said earlier in the week; if you’re going through trying to win each game and that’s your objective, if you manage that you qualify”.
“Cian is always an asset, whether that’s off the bench or starting”, Schmidt told reporters.
There are times probably to take risks and times where it’s a great opportunity for Darren Cave.
Ulster’s Tommy Bowe is the only survivor from Ireland’s 43-12 victory over Romania back in November 2005.
“I guess Jamie, his leadership, when we decided not to start Paul, one of the back row had to back-up and he was a reasonably obvious choice given that he comes into lead the side”.
15-Simon Zebo, 14-Tommy Bowe, 13-Jared Payne, 12-Darren Cave, 11-Keith Earls, 10-Ian Madigan, 9-Eoin Reddan; 8-Jamie Heaslip (captain), 7-Chris Henry, 6-Jordi Murphy, 5-Devin Toner, 4-Donnacha Ryan, 3-Nathan White, 2-Richard Strauss, 1-Cian Healy.
The 27-year-old, who took his tournament total to seven tries, saw fellow wing Tommy Bowe also score two tries with Rob Kearney and Chris Henry getting the others.
Joe Schmidt’s side will relocate to their St George’s Park base in Burton upon-Trent tomorrow and will spend the rest of the week in Staffordshire to prepare for their clash with Romania at Wembley Stadium on Sundayweek.
“As in any match we would be managing players in and out of training, so some guys who may have trained yesterday may have sat out today”. Reserves: Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath, Tadgh Furlong, Paul O’Connell, Sean O’Brien, Conor Murray, Paddy Jackson, Rob Kearney.
“Italy will know, because they have had a win and a loss, that they need to win next weekend, so it becomes a kind of top 16 game for us to make sure we can play our way through that”.
Replacements: 16 Mihaita Lazar, 17 Otar Turashvili, 18 Alexandru Tarus, 19 Johannes van Heerden, 20 Stelian Burcea, 21 Florin Surugiu, 22 Florin Ionita, 23 Florin Vlaicu.
Schmidt added: “We know we can qualify if we win next weekend”.
“Canada didn’t really go after the ball in the air whereas Romania got a lot of pressure in the air”.
Kiss said Romania had made changes to their line-up, which would be tested at the start of the match.
“He [O’Connell] wants to play”, Schmidt said.
Lynn Howells (Romania) – “The lineout is certainly one of the areas we have to improve after the game against France“.
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“Ireland have a more complete game than France, are better equipped and can go further in the competition”.
