Irish to unlock Saxons

Churchill Cup Plate Final/Ireland A v Saxons:  Battered, bruised and minus the suspended Roger Wilson, the Irish squad arrived in Edmonton this week to prepare for the Churchill Cup Plate final against the ridiculously named England Saxons.

The after effects of the New Zealand Maori encounter have forced Michael Bradley into four personnel changes and one positional.

John Hearty comes back into the centre for Kieran Lewis (dislocated thumb) and Conor McPhilips replaces Robert Kearney (concussion) on the wing. Team captain Shane Jennings switches to blindside, in the absence of the suspended Wilson, with Ulster openside Neil McMillan handed his first start, while Tomás O'Leary is preferred at scrumhalf over Chris Keane.

It's interesting to note three players from the Irish under-21 team that reached the 2004 World Cup final - O'Leary, Hearty and the best player on that and this tour, Jamie Heaslip - have graduated to A level. Another, Tommy Bowe, is in New Zealand with the senior squad.

Coach Jon Callard strengthens the "Saxons" backline with London Wasps' 17-stone winger Ayoola Erinle and hands the captaincy to the Llanelli Scarlets scrumhalf Clive Stuart-Smith.

The RFU felt it necessary to name their A team after the people who inhabited England after the collapse of the Roman Empire in AD 410. Saxon is a generic word for people from north Germany. So it is Ireland versus the Anglo-Germans. Motivation in itself.

Or to be slightly more realistic, it is the unestablished Celtic League prospects against the underlings of the Guinness Premiership.

Despite losing Wilson, Kearney and Lewis, Ireland appear better equipped to take this third- and fourth-place play-off and end a worthwhile journey on a positive note.

IRELAND A: B Cunningham (Connacht); A Maxwell (Ulster), J Hearty (Connacht), D Quinlan (Northampton Saints), C McPhilips (Connacht); P Wallace (Ulster), T O'Leary (Munster); R Hogan (Connacht), J Fogarty (Connacht), T Court (Ulster); T Hogan (Leinster), M McCullough (Ulster); S Jennings (Leicester Tigers, capt), N McMillan (Ulster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements: B Blaney (Leinster), R McCormack (Leinster), D Browne (Northampton Saints), J Muldoon (Connacht), C Keane (Connacht), E Hickey (Leinster), M Lawlor (Munster).

ENGLAND SAXONS: D Armitage (London Irish); R Haughton (Saracens), B Johnston (Saracens), C Bell (Leeds Tykes), A Erinle (London Wasps); D Walder (Newcastle Falcons), C Stuart-Smith (Llanelli Scarlets, capt); D Barnes (Bath Rugby), J Buckland (Leicester Tigers), S Turner (Sale Sharks); J Hudson (Bath Rugby), N Kennedy (London Irish); K Roche (London Irish), D Seymour (Saracens), K Horstmann (Worcester Warriors). Replacements: TBC.