Keo.co.za brings you the latest team announcements from the Six Nations.

D’Arcy back for Paddies

Gordon D’Arcy will win his first start in over a year when Ireland take on Scotland at Murrayfield.

The inside centre will partner Brian O’Driscoll in the midfield on Saturday and replaces Paddy Wallace.

There are three other changes in the team as Peter Stringer comes in for Tommas O’Leary at scrumhalf, while hooker Rory Best and No 8 Dennis Leamy are named ahead of Jerry Flannery and Jamie Heaslip.

“The fact that I can bring in so many experienced, quality players shows the strength in depth that we currently have in the squad,” said Ireland coach Declan Kidney.

Ireland – 15 Rob Kearney (Leinster); 14 Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), 13 Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster, c), 12 Gordon D’Arcy (Leinster) , 11 Luke Fitzgerald (Leinster); 10 Ronan O’Gara (Munster), 9 Peter Stringer (Munster); 1 Marcus Horan (Munster), 2 Rory Best (Ulster), 3 John Hayes (Munster), 4 Donncha O’Callaghan (Munster), 5 Paul O’Connell (Munster), 6 Stephen Ferris (Ulster), 7 David Wallace (Munster), 8 Dennis Leamy (Munster).

Subs: 16 Jerry Flannery (Munster), 17 Tom Court (Ulster), 18 Mick O’Driscoll (Leinster), 19 Jamie Heaslip (Leinster), 20 Tommas O’Leary (Munster), 21 Paddy Wallace (Ulster), 22 Geordan Murphy (Leicester).

Paterson returns for Scots

Scotland’s record points-scorer Chris Paterson will start his first Test of the year when he takes on Ireland.

Paterson was named at fullback in place of Hugo Southwell. “I’ve been impressed with Chris Paterson’s attitude in this Championship,” said coach Frank Hadden.

“As ever, he’s been the model professional, getting on with his job and he deserves the opportunity to start on this occasion.”

Hadden hasn’t yet named his locks. “It will be a close call in the second row but clearly we’ll go with the players we believe give us the best chance of creating the sort of platform that we’ll need to win against a fine Irish team,” he said.

“Once we have finalised the lock selections we will complete our bench selection. Here, we are also monitoring the welcome return to fitness of Rory Lamont.”

Scotland – 15-Chris Paterson, 14-Simon Danielli, 13-Max Evans, 12-Graeme Morrison, 11-Thom Evans, 10-Phil Godman, 9-Mike Blair (c); 8-Simon Taylor, 7-John Barclay, 6-Alasdair Strokosch, locks from: Jim Hamilton, Nathan Hines, Alastair Kellock, Jason White, 3-Euan Murray, 2-Ross Ford, 1-Alasdair Dickinson. Subs:16-Dougie Hall, 17-Moray Low, 18-AN Other lock, 19-Scott Gray, 20-Chris Cusiter, 21-AN Other, 22-Hugo Southwell.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 12:44 am and is filed under 6 Nations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.