February 25th, 2009 by Warren Moore

Martin Johnson has opted to change England’s fly-half for the seventh time in 10 matches as Toby Flood has been nominated to take control for the Six Nations trip to face Ireland at Croke Park on Saturday.

As expected, Toby Flood, who had impressed from the bench in the 23-15 defeat to Wales in Cardiff, replaces Andy Goode, who failed to cement his place having started England’s first two games in the championship.

Goode has been included on the bench along with scrum-half Danny Care, who has returned to the squad in place of Paul Hodgson after recovering from an ankle ligament strain.

Toby Flood, last started in the position for England in the heavy defeat to New Zealand at Twickenham last November. In the last 12 months alone, the No 10 shirt has been passed between Jonny Wilkinson, Flood, Goode, Danny Cipriani and Charlie Hodgson.

Meanwhile Ireland who are preparing to face England at Croke Park for the first time since the historic 43-13 victory two years ago have named an unchanged starting XV for the third week in a row.

The sole change from the matches against France and Italy sees Malcolm O’Kelly, who did not make it into the expanded 36-man squad named before this game, replaced in the substitutes by Munster lock and back-row forward Mick O’Driscoll.

Saturday’s match will see out-half Ronan O’Gara win his 90th cap and in doing so he will join O’Kelly, John Hayes and O’Driscoll as the only players to have won over 90 caps for Ireland.

England team v Ireland, Croke Park

England: D Armitage; P Sackey , M Tindall , R Flutey , M Cueto ; T Flood , H Ellis ; A Sheridan , L Mears , P Vickery , S Borthwick , N Kennedy, J Haskell , J Worsley, N Easter .

Replacements: D Hartley, J White , T Croft , L Narraway , D Care , A Goode , M Tait.

Ireland: R Kearney ; T Bowe , B O’Driscoll, P Wallace, L Fitzgerald, R O’Gara , T O’Leary, M Horan , J Flannery , J Hayes , D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, S Ferris , D Wallace, J Heaslip.

Replacements: R Best , T Court, M O’Driscoll , D Leamy , P Stringer , G D’Arcy, G Murphy.

The eagerly anticipated Ireland vs England Six Nations match takes place this Saturday along with Scotland vs Italy (February 28) these games will be proceeded by the Friday night meeting of France vs Wales (February 27). Tickets for all of this weekends RBS six nations matches are still available from £20.