Leinster captain Reggie Corrigan will lead Ireland out for the first time when the visitors play Tonga in the second Test of their three-match summer tour on Saturday.
Coach Eddie O'Sullivan has named an experimental looking line-up for the match with 11 changes from the side which lost the opening Test against Australia in Perth last Saturday. The only survivors from the 43-16 defeat are backs Girvan Dempsey and John Kelly and front row forwards, Shane Byrne and Corrigan.
The primary reason for such wholesale changes on the team-sheet was due to the fact that nine of the more 'senior' players were granted early release from the Tour.
Victor Costello, Malcolm O'Kelly, Gary Longwell, Keith Gleeson, Kevin Maggs, Geordan Murphy, Peter Stringer, David Humphreys and James Topping boarded a flight home to Dublin on Sunday, excused for the two-week trip to the Pacific Islands of Tonga and Samoa after the testing Wallaby game.
O'Sullivan will name his seven replacements from a pool of 10 players later in the week. The new look side will play Tonga in Nuku'alofa, the Tongan capital, with kick-off at 3.30 a.m. Irish time.
The Ireland team to play Tonga is:
15 Girvan Dempsey (Leinster, Terenure College), 14 John Kelly (Munster, Cork Constitution), 13 Mike Mullins (Munster, Old Crescent), 12 Jonathan Bell (Ulster, Dungannon), 11 Tyrone Howe (Ulster, Ballymena) 10 Ronan O'Gara (Munster, Cork Constitution), 9 Guy Easterby (Llanelli), 1 Justin Fitzpatrick (Ulster, Dungannon), 2 Shane Byrne (Leinster, Blackrock College), 3 Reggie Corrigan (Leinster, Greystones) Captain, 4 Leo Cullen (Leinster, Blackrock College), 5 Paul O'Connell (Munster, Young Munster), 6 Simon Easterby (Llanelli), 7 Kieron Dawson (London Irish), 8 Eric Miller (Leinster, Terenure College)
Replacements: From Paul Shields (Ulster, Ballymena), Emmet Byrne (Leinster, St. Mary's College), Donnacha O'Callaghan (Munster, Cork Constitution), David Wallace (Munster, Garryowen), Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster, Lansdowne), Brian O'Meara (Leinster, Cork Constitution), Simon Best (Ulster, Belfast Harlequins), Mark McHugh (Connacht - St. Mary's College), Marcus Horan (Munster, Shannon), Anthony Horgan (Munster, Cork Constitution).