Friday 9 June 2017 18:46, UK
Stand-in captain Rhys Ruddock has backed Ireland's young players to shine against the USA in New Jersey on Saturday.
With 11 players away on British and Irish Lions duty, Joe Schmidt has named a youthful line-up, with as many as five players poised to make their debuts.
Ulster's Jacob Stockdale starts on the left wing, while Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan, Leinster pair Andrew Porter and James Ryan, and Munster centre Rory Scannell are all named on the bench.
Ruddock says the potential debutants have quickly integrated with the rest of the squad and he expects them to shine if called upon this weekend.
"I've been really impressed," Ruddock said. "Even the guys that aren't in the squad this week have had that edge and that intensity that you would expect which has allowed us to prepare even better.
"We've spoken about having a competitive squad and a competitive environment. Everyone is striving to make the squad even better and we certainly had that, and I've been really impressed with some of the guys that haven't been involved, who are hoping to be involved later in the tour.
"For the guys that are involved tomorrow making those first caps, hopefully it's a special day for them.
"The way they've trained, they look every bit ready so I'm looking forward to seeing them out there."
With Rory Best and Peter O'Mahony away on Lions duty in New Zealand and Jamie Heaslip missing through injury, Schmidt has looked to Ruddock to fill the captaincy void for Ireland's summer tour.
The Leinster backrower will be leading his country for the first time, after some impressive outings for Ireland during last summer's three-Test series in South Africa, but is relishing the challenge.
"First and foremost, my focus has been on delivering what's expected in terms of the actions and what's expected, how you train, how you recover, and all that sort of stuff. I'm just trying to set the example there," added the 26-year-old.
"If there's ever a time where any of the more experienced guys like myself or guys who have been in the environment a little bit more can offer words of advice or bring people along with you, that's been done.
"There's a lot of leaders within the group who have stepped up and done that job throughout the last two weeks leading into the game now."
Ireland: 15 Tiernan O'Halloran, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Kieran Marmion, 1 Cian Healy, 2 Niall Scannell, 3 John Ryan, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Devin Toner, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Jack Conan.
Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 James Ryan, 20 Dan Leavy, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Rory Scannell, 23 Simon Zebo.
