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22nd January 2019
11:50am GMT

The injuries to Tadhg Beirne and Iain Henderson have cleared up the debate over Ireland's starting team significantly. The two areas that are not easy to lock down are openside flanker and midfield.
To our mind, Sean O'Brien is more than capable of playing from the start against England if he gets through training in good nick. Joe Schmidt will take it easy on his charges in the first couple of days of Portugal training camp before ramping it up later in the week. Johnny Sexton (196 minutes since November) has not played since December 29 but it will take an awful lot to keep him out of the opening fixture.
To that end, here is our expected Ireland team to face England and the players' game-time since that 13-9 win over the All Blacks.
1. Cian Healy (254 minutes, four starts, one sub) 2. Rory Best (340, four starts, one sub) 3. Tadhg Furlong (283, five starts) 4. Devin Toner (211, three starts) 5. James Ryan (383, five starts) 6. Peter O'Mahony (409, six starts) 7. Sean O'Brien (55, one start) 8. CJ Stander (428, five starts, one sub) 9. Conor Murray (495, six starts, two sub) 10. Johnny Sexton (196, three starts) 11. Jacob Stockdale (333, five starts, one sub) 12. Bundee Aki (378, five starts) 13. Garry Ringrose (380, five starts) 14. Keith Earls (560, seven starts) 15. Rob Kearney (144, two starts)Three other Leinster players that will be close selection calls are Robbie Henshaw (62 minutes, one start), Dan Leavy (211, three starts) and van der Flier, who has logged 404 minutes in his five starts. It is the Munster quarter of O'Mahony, Stander, Murray and Earls, who has started and finished seven games, that has been pushed hardest in the intervening months since the Guinness Series. That really shows up those complaining over in England - clubs and pundits - about Irish players being rested and protected by their union. One hopes Schmidt goes easiest on those four lads in Portugal as each one of them are key to Ireland's chances of successfully defending their title. CHECK OUT THAT HOUSE OF RUGBY EPISODE HERE: https://youtu.be/gsvnwBCAOQ8

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