Ireland's under-fire duo Frankie Sheahan and David Humphreys have received massive votes of confidence from coach Eddie O'Sullivan ahead of the Lloyds TSB Six Nations clash with Scotland on Saturday. There were calls for both players to be dropped following Ireland's 45-11 drubbing by England at Twickenham ten days ago, but O'Sullivan insisted he had no hesitation in keeping faith with the players that started against England and made just one enforced change for his team to face the Scots at Lansdowne Road.
Shane Horgan comes in for the injured Geordan Murphy, but with skipper Keith Wood still recovering from a calf injury Sheahan continues at hooker despite a miserable Twickenham experience where the Irish lineout failed to function.
O'Sullivan insisted: "Frankie Sheahan has had a lot of unfair criticism following the Twickenham game. But the lineout is like the scrum, it's a combined effort and the catchers were just as culpable as the thrower. The whole pack let us down not just the hooker. As for fly-half Humphreys, O'Sullivan explained: "It would have been very unfair to drop him. He only had 40 minutes at fly-half before we were forced to push him back to full-back. And in those 40 minutes he only received a total of five passes. You can't drop someone on the strength of those five passes, especially when David has been walking on water all season with his form for Ulster and Ireland."
Filed by Shane Murray
