Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll and prop Reggie Corrigan have been added to the squad to face Fiji on Sunday at Lansdowne Road.
Both players were originally left out of the 22-man squad for the middle game in the three autumn matches, but following an ankle injury to John Kelly, who came off the Irish bench for Denis Hickie in the win over Australia last Saturday, and the continuing worry surrounding Paul Wallace's ankle, the decision has been made to draft the two Leinster players back into the squad again.
The starting team and bench players for the match will be named today at the squad's training ground at Greystones, with the possibility that O'Driscoll will take on the Irish captain's job for the second time while regular skipper Keith Wood continues to recover from a neck injury.
Other options for Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan for the captaincy in the event of O'Driscoll not starting are back row Anthony Foley and outhalf David Humphreys. They have done the job before and Foley was nominated as one of the vice-captains last week.
The Ireland development team to play Argentina at Donnybrook on Wednesday, November 20th will also be announced today.
The Fijians, who have arrived in Dublin following their 58-14 defeat by Wales in the Millennium Stadium over the weekend, will hold an open training session on the back pitch at Lansdowne Road today between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. The tourists will announce their team on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Springbok loose forward Thando Manana is expected to become the first black national player to leave South Africa for a professional career outside the country when he arrives in Ireland to play for Blackrock this week.
Manana, who was a Springbok tourist in 2000 and played four matches against Argentina A, Ireland A, Wales A, and England A, will link up with Blackrock to play in the All Ireland League.
But the 25-year-old said before his departure he did not plan to stay permanently in Ireland: "I will be back next year in May and would then try and make a Currie Cup side and to break into the Springbok World Cup squad.
"For now, I just want to get my career back on track. I feel that I was taken advantage of by some coaches and administrators in South African rugby. Now I want to get back to concentrating on just playing rugby again," Manana said.
The blindside flanker played for the provincial Griffons in 2002, but injuries forced him to the sidelines for the bulk of the domestic season.
His departure is a blow to the ideals of the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU), which has been trying since democratic elections in 1994 to transform the preferred game of South Africa's white minority to one which included players of all races.
Black winger Chester Williams, whose exploits in South Africa's 1995 World Cup triumph became the symbol of what was meant to be the new face of the country, last month undermined the South African rugby establishment in a new book with revelations about racism in the sport.
Williams, who coached the South African sevens team at July's Commonwealth Games, claimed the so-called unity lasted no more than a week after they had beaten New Zealand in the final.
