“Seán has been involved off the bench in some really important wins for us so why not bring that from the start?” said Ireland coach Joe Schmidt. “He knows we’ve got faith in him.”After selecting Carty ahead of Ross Byrne this season, Schmidt has been impressed by the 26-year-old's impact in Ireland camp. His ability to absorb information, to slot into the team, all those things have been really first rate. Meanwhile Italy’s Irish head coach Conor O’Shea has made five changes to his team - Tito Tebaldi returns at scrumhalf while there are four changes in the pack. IRELAND: Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; David Kilcoyne, Seán Cronin, Tadhg Furlong; Ultan Dillane, Quinn Roux; Peter O’Mahony (capt), Seán O’Brien, Jordi Murphy.

Source: The Irish Times February 22, 2019 13:02 UTC