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Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has handed out four debuts in a much-changed side to take on Japan in the Nations Championship.
Farrell’s team kicked off their campaign with a win over Australia in Sydney, and now make a short trip to Newcastle for a meeting with Japan.
Connacht No 8 Sean Jansen wins his first cap in the starting XV, with club colleagues Billy Bohan and Sam Illo providing prop cover and awaiting debuts from the bench. Ulster back row Bryn Ward completes the uncapped quartet in the matchday 23.
Lock Tadhg Beirne takes over the captaincy from Dan Sheehan, while Ciaran Frawley is installed at fly half.
Jamie Osborne moves to full-back from the wing as Jacob Stockdale is brought into the back three.
Japan impressed in their inaugural Nations Championship fixture, beating Italy 27-10. Head coach Eddie Jones again puts faith in Ryunosuke Ito at fly half, with the 21-year-old university student backed at No 10.
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Ryunosuke Ito starts again at fly half for Japan (Getty)
"He's a young 10, he's going to have his ups and downs but we've got a team that's going to support him," said Jones. "Those guys will help look after him and we just want him to be himself."
Jones returns after serving a four-match ban imposed by the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) for abusing match officials. Taira Main replaces Kippei Ishida on the wing in Japan’s only change.
Japan XV: 1 Takato Okabe, 2 Mamoru Harada, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi; 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Dearns (capt.); 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 8 Jack Cornelsen; 9 Naoto Saito, 10 Ryunosuke Ito; 11 Taira Main, 12 Yuya Hirose, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Kazuma Ueda; 15 Takuro Matsunaga.
Replacements: 16 Hayate Era, 17 Sojiro Otuska, 18 Keijiro Tamefusa, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Michael Leitch, 21 Tiennan Costley; 22 Itsuki Kamimura, 23 Sam Greene.
Ireland XV: 1 Tom O’Toole, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 3 Tom Clarkson; 4 Tadhg Beirne (capt.), 5 James Ryan; 6 Jack Conan, 7 Nick Timoney, 8 Sean Jansen; 9 Craig Casey, 10 Ciaran Frawley; 11 Jacob Stockdale, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 14 Jimmy O’Brien; 15 Jamie Osborne.
Replacements: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Billy Bohan, 18 Sam Illo, 19 Cormac Izuchukwu, 20 Bryn Ward; 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Bundee Aki.
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