Will Addison will start at full back in his first appearance since January while former Scarlets star Tadhg Beirne starts in the back-row. Niall Scannell has been given the nod at hooker with half-backs Jack Carty and Kieran Marmion get their first starts of the August tests.
Chris Farrell returns to partner Bundee Aki in midfield while Iain Henderson is joined in the second row by James Ryan, with Devin Toner again on the bench. Jack Conan is given the chance to stake a claim for a starting berth at the back of the scrum as Munster props Dave Kilcoyne and John Ryan look to cement their places in the final 31-man squad.
Peter O’Mahony will captain the side as Ireland look to bounce back from a heavy defeat against England at Twickenham. “I have seen a lift in camp and I do believe we’re in a better place to play rugby now,” said Schmidt.
“I think there’ll be evidence of that but the confirmation of that doesn’t come until we get through to the final whistle on Saturday and we see how players have performed. We’ve had some good training sessions this week and we trained well this morning.
“That gives us a little bit of confidence that we will be very much a step ahead of where we were last week. It was always our plan to make some changes.
“Players need to have a little bit of a hit out, maybe two hit outs before you’re up to speed. The forwards need to have some games under their belts.”
