David Humphreys will start at out-half for Ireland when Eddie O'Sullivan's side tackle France in the Six Nations at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. Ronan O'Gara is named on the replacements' bench.
Humphreys had been under pressure from a fit-again O'Gara for the number 10 shirt but has been rewarded by the Irish management team after impeccable performances in the victories against Scotland and Italy.
"To be fair to David Humphreys his two performances to date have been top drawer and we've always believed in rewarding players for producing some form and at the end of the day it came down to that," O'Sullivan explained this afternoon.
O'Sullivan has made two changes to the side that triumphed in Rome last month with Girvan Dempsey, who has recovered from the groin strain suffered in Edinburgh, returning to the full-back berth. That move sees Geordan Murphy revert to the right wing with John Kelly making way.
The other change is in the pack with Marcus Horan beating Justin Fitzpatrick to the loosehead spot vacated by the injured Reggie Corrigan.
Shane Horgan, still struggling with a thigh tear, was not considered for selection while there remains a spot available on the bench - most likely a choice between Kelly and his Munster team-mate Rob Henderson.
With hooker Keith Wood still sidelined with a long-term shoulder problem, centre Brian O'Driscoll keeps the captaincy.
After away wins over Scotland and Italy, Ireland are level with England at the top of the Six Nations table and harbour grand slam ambitions. However, O'Sullivan was at pains to dismiss any notion of the slam until Saturday's match is out of the way.
"The game on Saturday is a big game," said O'Sullivan said.
"There's no doubt if you are going to win the grand slam you have to beat the big guns and we still have two of the big guns left to play. We are going to stay focused on the job in hand, which is France on Saturday.
"I'm really not into talking about grand slams till we are further down the road. What concerns me is that people are talking down France and I think that's rather silly.
"I don't think France or England would talk about grand slams until they played each other, so it's kind of ludicrous for us to talk about grand slams until we've played more games.
"If we play well on Saturday we can win this game, but it's still going to be a tight game. If we play badly we all know what happens then."
Ireland
15 Girvan Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure College), 14 Geordan Murphy (Leicester), 13 Brian ODriscoll (Leinster/Blackrock College) Captain , 12 Kevin Maggs (Bath), 11 Denis Hickie (Leinster/St. Marys College), 10 David Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon), 9 Peter Stringer (Munster/Shannon), 8 Anthony Foley (Munster/Shannon), 7 Keith Gleeson (Leinster/St. Marys College), 6 Victor Costello (Leinster/St. Marys College), 5 Malcolm OKelly (Leinster/St. Marys College), 4 Gary Longwell (Ulster/Ballymena), 3 John Hayes (Munster/Shannon), 2 Shane Byrne (Leinster/Blackrock College), 1 Marcus Horan (Munster/Shannon)
Replacements 16 Frank Sheahan (Munster/Cork Constitution), 17 Justin Fitzpatrick (Ulster/Dungannon), 18 Leo Cullen (Leinster/Blackrock College), 19 Alan Quinlan (Munster/Shannon), 20 Guy Easterby (Llanelli), 21 Ronan O'Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution), 22 A.N. Other