Gilroy starts against the Pumas
Ireland coach Declan Kidney has named Ulster’s Craig Gilroy in his side to face Argentina at the Aviva on Saturday.
Kidney, as expected, reverted mainly to the players defeated by South Africa, but also chose Gilroy who scored three tries for Ireland 53-0 romp against Fiji at Thomond Park last Saturday.
The uncapped 21-year-old will be on the left wing, while his Ulster team-mate Andrew Trimble has been dropped from the squad altogether.
The showdown with Argentina has taken on critical significance, with the winners securing a place in the top eight of the IRB rankings which are being used to determine the seedings for the 2015 World Cup.
The losers will slip into the third tier of seeds for next month’s draw and face the possibility of being selected in a pool containing two major nations.
Adding further impetus to Ireland’s quest for victory is their current five-Test losing sequence, their worst run for 14 years.
If Argentina add to their misery Kidney’s position will come under intense scrutiny.
Ireland are missing highly-influential Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien and Rob Kearney to injury, but the South Africa game was a missed opportunity to claim a prized southern hemisphere scalp.
The rivals have met on 12 previous occasions with the Irish winning seven matches, including the last two.
Ireland to play Argentina: S Zebo (Munster); T Bowe (Ulster), K Earls (Munster), G D’Arcy (Leinster), C Gilroy (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Strauss (Leinster), M Ross (Leinster), D Ryan (Munster), M McCarthy (Connacht), P O’Mahony (Munster), C Henry (Ulster), J Heaslip (Leinster, capt).
Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster), D Kilcoyne (Munster), M Bent (Leinster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), I Henderson (Ulster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O’Gara (Munster), F McFadden (Leinster).
