This Saturday Ireland will face England in a crucial RBS Six Nations match in Twickenham. Sportspeak caught up with Jamie Heaslip who admitted that whether or not its a competitive game every player wants to be in a team to face England and that whether people like rugby or not, it’s the one game everyone in the country will be interested in watching. He also spoke of his excitement about playing Twickenham.

 
Donncha O’Callaghan has returned to full fitness and has been named in Declan Kidney’s team to play England on Saturday. He told Sportspeak that he was delighted and honoured to be back playing in a green jersey. Donncha also spoke about his long time friend and team mate John Hayes who joins the ranks of rugby’s test centurions. O’Callaghan  told Sportspeak that Hayes “Would rather be off milking his cows” than being the centre of attention;

 
Ireland head coach Declan Kidney yesterday made four changes from the side who were hammered by France. for this weekends must win game with England. Donncha O’ Callaghan comes back into the team for the first time this year meaning Leo Cullen drops to the bench. Rory Best comes in at hooker for the suspended Jerry Flannery. Jonathan Sexton wins the number 10 shirt after his impressive performance for Leinster on Saturday, meaning O’ Gara drops to the bench. Finally on the Bench is Connachts Sean Cronin who has been named for the first time in the Six Nations Championship. Kidney explains his selections.

 
This Saturday Ireland will face England in the Six Nations in Twickenham, and Irish captain Brian O Driscoll spoke about the importance of putting the thrashing at the hands of France out of his mind. He also spoke about his team mate John Hayes winning his 100th cap for Ireland.

There are four changes to the starting Ireland team that will play England this weekend in the RBS Six Nations, two in the forwards and two in the backline. Geordan Murphy returns to the Ireland team at full back after missing the November internationals due to injury and Jonathan Sexton will start the game at number 10.

In the forwards, prop John Hayes will win his 100th cap as part of a front row that sees Rory Best come into the team in place of the suspended Jerry Flannery. Sean Cronin joins the match 22 for the first time in a Six Nations game, on the bench as back up hooker.

The final change to the starting team is Donncha O’Callaghan, who returns to the side for the first time since the game against South Africa in November to play in the second row alongside is long time partner Paul O Connell.
15- Geordan Murphy
14- Tommy Bowe
13- Brian O’Driscoll
12- Gordon D’Arcy
11- Keith Earls
10- Jonathan Sexton
9- TomasO’Leary
1- Cian Healy
2- Rory Best
3- John Hayes
4 – Donncha O’Callaghan
5 – Paul O’Connell
6 – Stephen Ferris
7- David Wallace
8 – Jamie Heaslip
SUBS;
16- Sean Cronin
17- Tony Buckley
18- Leo Cullen
19- Shane Jennings
20 – Eoin Reddan
21- Ronan O’Gara
22- Andrew Trimble

Ireland fans in London for this RBS 6 Nations weekend will have the chance to watch a unique match between England and Ireland Legends XVs at the Stoop in Twickenham.

The match is due to place on Friday night the teams will be contesting the Stuart Mangan Memorial Cup.

Stuart, a native of Cork, died in August 2009 year after suffering a spinal injury playing rugby in England a year previously. Proceeds from the match will go to the IRFU Chartiable Trust, the Matt Hampson Trust, The Paralysed Rugby Players’ Fund all of which raise money in the UK and Ireland for injured sportsmen.

The teams feature a host of recognisable faces from the last 15 years.

The Irish selection will be captain by ex-Leinster and Ireland hooker Shane Byrne and has two potential full-Ireland international centre partnerships with Jonny Bell, Maurice Field, Rob Henderson and Kevin Maggs all in the squad. Rugby connoisseurs will also have the chance to see legendary Ulster and Ireland out-half David Humphreys in action again. In the pack, hard men such as Gabriel Fulcher, Gary Halpin, Paddy Johns will lead the effort in the tight while Victor Costello is among the back row options. Byrne and Costello’s fellow media pundits David Corkery and Liam Toland – also back-rowers – are also in the Ireland squad.

England also have some eye-catching names in their selection, including Rugby World Cup winners Martin Corry, who will captain the team, Neil Back, Jason Robinson, Josh Lewsey and Dan Luger. Ex-Leinster and Wasps prop Will Green is also set to line out for England. Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for studends, under 12 and OAPs. Kick-off 7:45pm and a highly enjoyable evening of post-match entertainment is also promised.

 
Leinster tonight defeated The Scarlets at the RDS. There were players like Sexton, Reddan and Horgan who wanted to impress the watching Irish head coach Declan Kidney, But another man battling for a place on the Irish team was Shane Jennings who spoke to Sportspeak and said how much of a distraction it is if you think about the people watching you.

 
Leinster climbed second in the Magners League With a 27-14 win over The Scarlets tonight at the RDS and Michael Cheika admitted he was happy with how his team performed considering they hadn’t played a club game since before the new year. He also gave his thoughts on how Johnathon Sexton Performed.

Leinster came into tonight’s clash at the RDS with certain players like Jonathan Sexton and Eoin Reddan hoping to impress the watching Declan Kidney as he prepares to name his team to face England next weekend in the Six Nations.

The game was a good up tempo start but very much like Munster last night claimed some injuries in the opening 10 minutes, first CJ Van der Linde went off on a blood injury but then only minutes later Sean O’Brien was taken off with what looked like a bad shoulder injury.

Leinster were on the board with 15 minutes gone from the boot of Jonathan Sexton after the Scarlet’s Dominic Day was caught holding onto the ball in the ruck. Leinster had discipline problems of their own after the referee awarded 5 penalties to the Scarlets, they finally decided to take a shot at goal to level the match. Leinster’s increasingly sloppy defending left a massive hole open on the left hand side for the Scarlets to go through and get their try but it was not converted so after 20 minutes the Scarlets had an 8-3 lead. With 24 minutes gone Leinster were in real trouble but were lucky in the fact that Scarlets had brought a dodgy number 10 who just wasn’t making his kicks.

After the half hour mark with some excellent passing and play Leinster were ahead after  a great try from Leinster’s player of the month Isa Nacewa which was converted by Sexton, then two minutes later the man who wants to take Ronan O’Gara’s 10 jersey for the English game slotted over for a further 3 points to take the Heineken cup champions to a 13-8 lead. The last play of the first half was a penalty for Scarlets which Priestland took well to reduce Leinster’s lead to 2 at 13-11.

The second half saw a brief moment of great play from the Scarlets and almost straight away they had the lead, that dodgy number 10, Priestland converted for 3 to give them a lead of 14-13. A near minute later Johnny had put Leinster back  ahead with a nicely taken penalty. Leinster’s next chance at a try was from a lovely break from Shane Horgan but he chipped it on for Dempsey who couldn’t get to it but the Scarlets were punished for holding onto the ball and Johnny was there again, another great taken penalty right through the middle of the posts to give the blues a 19-14 lead.

Scarlets had another opportunity at a try and were so close Andy Fenby was inches away from the line and the Scarlets went all the way across the pick with the pick and go but Leinster’s defence finally caught up on them and managed to turn the ball over and clear their line. Shane Horgan made a fabulous break on 67 minutes and almost was in but the Scarlets were penalised for going off their feet and it seemed like the team wanted Sexton to get as many points as he could from the game and he slotted over for another 3 and with less than 10 minutes to go Leinster had a 22-14 lead and looked like going back top of the Magners league table.

Scarlets night went from bad to worse on 73 minutes, Rob McCusker had a try with nobody covering him, just as he was crossing the line, the flute knocked it on and Leinster had another chance to clear their lines. Just as Sexton was named man of the match he went over for a try to add to his great display but his conversion was just wide, great overall performance that surely must have him on the flight to London.

Final Score Leinster 27 Scarlets 14.

SCARLETS:

15. Dan Newton 14.Daniel Evans 13. Regan King 12.Jon Davies 11 Andy Fenby 10. Rhys Priestland 9 Martin Roberts 1 Thomas Lestyn 2 Ken Owens 3 Deacon Manu 4 Dominic Day 5 Damien Welch 6 Rob Mc Cusker 7 Johnathon Edwards 8 David Lyons(C)

LEINSTER:

15: Girvan Dempsey 14: Shane Horgan 13: Fergus McFadden 12: Shaun Berne 11: Isa Nacewa 10: Jonathan Sexton 9: Eoin Reddan1: Stan Wright 2: Bernard Jackman 3: CJ van der Linde 4: Devin Toner 5: Malcolm O’Kelly 6: Kevin McLaughlin 7: Shane Jennings CAPTAIN 8: Sean O’Brien

REPLACEMENTS FROM: John Fogarty, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross, Trevor Hogan, Stephen Keogh, Simon Keogh, Paul O’Donohoe, Eoin O’Malley, Andrew Conway

REFEREE: Andy Macpherson (SRU), ASSISTANT REFEREES: Colin Stanley (IRFU), Jonathan Peake (IRFU), 4th OFFICIAL: Ed Kenny (ARLB), 5th OFFICIAL: Gordon Murray (ARLB), TMO: Tony Redmond (IRFU)