Payne to make Ireland debut against Springboks

Ulster's Jared Payne will make his Ireland debut in a new centre partnership with Robbie Henshaw against South Africa on Saturday (Live on RTE2, from 1630).

The New Zealand-born back has qualified to represent Joe Schmidt's side through residency after three years with the province and will wear the number 13 jersey with Henshaw starting at inside centre.

Ireland boss Schmidt said circumstance led him to pair Henshaw and Payne in midfield - but challenged the duo to match their physicality with the kind of iron will O'Driscoll and D'Arcy exuded for a generation.

While D'Arcy has returned to full fitness, Schmidt claimed the Leinster centre had not been ready early enough in the week to complete match-level preparation.

"It was what was available to us at the start of the week," said Schmidt.

"Robbie Henshaw's flexibility to play 12 or 13 is similar to Jared Payne, but that's the way they trained last week, so we've decided to go with that.

"Gordon was injured last week: he's probably back to full fitness now but we weren't absolutely sure of that at the beginning of the week.

"We have very small windows of preparation so we just felt we were partway along a pathway that was looking reasonably positive.

"To be fair to Gordon D'Arcy he has helped immeasurably: he's been a really good mentor for Robbie and Jared this week.

"We thought Gordon would be fit, he probably has made it to be fair to him, but we hadn't had any time with the combinations.

"It was going to be a new pairing no matter what, so we just decided to go with what had been working together.

"To be honest I didn't tell the centres in advance, I just named the team.

"It wasn't too much of a surprise to them because they'd been running in there together.

"I did speak to Gordon beforehand, and he's very much team-orientated as always.

"He's been a massive asset to those two in training.

"Ireland have been blessed with a centre pairing for a huge length of time that have not necessarily been the biggest but been as physical as the best.

"Physicality is sometimes determined by the will rather than the size.

"Hopefully on Saturday we'll get a bit of both from our centre pairing."

Paul O'Connell captains the side and is joined in the engine room by Devin Toner.

The backrow is made up of Jamie Heaslip, Chris Henry and Peter O'Mahony while the front row sees Jack McGrath and Mike Ross pack down either side of their provincial team-mate Sean Cronin.

Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton are re-united at half-back and Tommy Bowe returns to the back three for the first time since last year's November internationals and lines out alongside Simon Zebo and Rob Kearney.

There is plenty of impact on the bench with Richardt Strauss, Dave Kilcoyne, Rodney Ah You, Mike McCarthy and Rhys Ruddock providing cover for the pack and Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan and Felix Jones covering the outfield.

Ireland are missing a host of regulars through injury, such as D'Arcy, Cian Healy, Rory Best, Sean O'Brien and Andrew Trimble.

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has remained loyal to the players who beat New Zealand last month by naming an unchanged starting line-up for the opening match of their northern hemisphere tour in Dublin.

Ireland XV (v South Africa): Rob Kearney; Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne, Robbie Henshaw, Simon Zebo; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jamie Heaslip, Chris Henry, Peter O'Mahony; Paul O'Connell, Devin Toner; Mike Ross, Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath.

Replacements: Richardt Strauss, Dave Kilcoyne, Rodney Ah You, Mike McCarthy, Rhys Ruddock.

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