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There is another provincial axis in midfield with Ulster’s Darren Cave and Payne filling the centre berths, while Earls is joined in the back-three by Simon Zebo and Tommy Bowe, the only survivor from Ireland’s 43-12 victory over Romania back in November 2005.

Joe Schmidt is expected to make numerous changes for Sunday’s clash with Murphy stressing that players will be selected based on their performance at training.

Surprised to learn Ireland had set a new record for the World Cup’s oldest starting XV, Schmidt joked that 34-year-old scrum-half Eoin Reddan may have skewed the stats.

Luke Fitzgerald has replaced him at inside-centre, the rest of the side was extremely predictable, as the strongest possible team for Ireland.

He seems to get better with age and has it all. The retirement of O’Driscoll was meant to signal the end of an era.

Cullen certainly didn’t expect to find himself as head coach at this early point in his new career, but Leinster are confident that the Wicklow man was the ideal candidate to succeed O’Connor.