As expected, Jamie Heaslip is the only player recalled into the Ireland team to play Wales as they chase a fourth win of the 2015 RBS Six Nations Championship.
After Jordi Murphy's impressive outing against England, he is relegated to the bench to make way for Jamie Heaslip after he recovers quicker than expected from injury sustained after Pascal Pape kneed him in the back in Ireland's victory over France.
Tommy O'Donnell is extremely unlucky to miss out altogether, as Joe decides to bring Heaslip straight back reversing the logic behind leaving Jack McGrath in the starting XV over Cian Healy. Healy is improving each training session, but Schmidt is keeping faith in McGrath, rewarding him for his good form for Ireland since his brilliant first half against South Africa last November.
Johnny Sexton takes his place in the starting lineup as he recovers from a minor hamstring injury, and will be the focal point of the Irish game plan. He has trained and kicked well this week, but Ian Keatley is expected to travel anyway as it's a bye week for Munster. Ian Madigan was kept in camp instead of getting gametime last week, and Schmidt is pleased that he was able to run at 10 in training with the first team.
Simon Zebo will face Wales for the first time since his star turn in the Six Nations two years ago that saw him score a great try and that flick following Rory Best's chargedown that lead to a try for Cian Healy.
Ireland will be aiming for a fourth straight win in the championship and a national record of eleven straight wins by beating Wales. They remain in first place as the only team with a chance of the Grand Slam. Wales will be in contention for the championship if they win in Cardiff, but that doesn't happen too often.
In other news, the roof will be OPEN on Saturday on the request of Warren Gatland, which is the first time in Gatland's time as Wales head coach that he has wanted the roof to be open.
Ireland Team To Play Wales. Saturday 14th March, 2.3o pm KO.
15. Rob Kearney
14. Tommy Bowe
13. Jared Payne
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Simon Zebo
10. Johnny Sexton
9. Conor Murray
1. Jack McGrath
2. Rory Best
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Paul O'Connell (c)
6. Peter O'Mahony
7. Sean O'Brien
8. Jamie Heaslip
Replacements:
16. Sean Cronin
17. Cian Healy
18. Martin Moore
19. Iain Henderson
20. Jordi Murphy
21. Eoin Reddan
22. Ian Madigan
23. Felix Jones
