Sean O’Brien and Jared Payne to be assessed ahead of Australia

Sean O'Brien and Jared Payne were both rested from the Captain's Run at the Aviva Stadium on Friday to rest "niggles" to their lower limbs and will be assessed in the morning before a decision is made as to their readiness for tomorrow's final Guinness Series match against Australia.

The Munster pair of Peter O'Mahony and Rory Scannell have been kept with the squad as cover. Were O'Brien ruled out, O'Mahony would presumably be drafted into the match-day squad and be named on the bench, with Josh van der Flier promoted to the starting openside slot after two prolonged appearances off the bench in the games against New Zealand.

O'Mahony and Scannell took part in the traditional eve-of-match Captain's run at the Aviva Stadium today (Friday) after which defence coach Andy Farrell maintained there had been no amendments to the selected starting team and replacements.

“Not as yet. A couple of guys have a couple of niggles. A Captain’s Run is just a light run-out so we made a decision to rest Sean O’Brien and Jared Payne and assess them for another 24 hours. We’ll have a discussion in the morning.”

Farrell described the injuries as “just tweaks, just lower limber tweaks. That’s what normally happens during the week. The main session was yesterday and we decided to give a couple of players a rest today. We’ve kept Peter O’Mahony and Rory Scannell (covering) for Jared as well.

“It’s not unusual because the work has been done, The captain’s run is just a stretch of the legs and an orientation really.”

Rob Kearney and CJ Stander have come through their return to play protocols.

Were Payne ruled out, one option would be to move Keith Earls into midfield and promote Simon Zebo to the wing. Asked if it would be a big ask to perm Scannell with Garry Ringrose in midfield, Farrell maintained: "We're expecting Jared to come through."

On the eve of his 100th cap, Irish captain Rory Best admitted that for much of his career he never envisaged reaching such a landmark “It would probably be safe to say I didn’t. I still remember my first cap and it doesn’t seem so long ago. Every time you get picked you feel unbelievably lucky. When you get to near 50 I thought imagine what it would be like to reach 50 caps. Now to be on the verge of 100 caps it’s very hard to believe.”