With Peter O'Mahony ruled out through injury, Caelan Doris will become the 110th Ireland Test match skipper when he leads the side out against Italy on Sunday.
After leading Ireland to a dominant opening-day victory over France, a calf injury keeps the Munster back row sidelined this week and 25-year-old Doris gets the nod.
Head coach Andy Farrell said: "He’s someone that has been on my mind, certainly, through the World Cup and how he has come on as a leader etc, and how he has dealt with being an international, top-class player over the years, his story, as it were, from his first cap to where he is now has been astonishing really, behind the scenes.
"So, therefore we are excited to give him the reins and let’s see what he can do with it."
Doris (below) will win his 38th cap, moving from number 8 to openside wing forward with Jack Conan coming in as one of six changes to the starting XV.
The Mayo native has played 75 times for Leinster since his debut in 2018 and has started 30 of Ireland’s last 31 games.
"It’s his first time captaining his country and he’s not done that much with Leinster neither, barring one a couple of weeks ago," added Farrell.
"Captaining the Under-20s, he is someone that is unbelievably professional, very diligent in his own preparation, so therefore because he is so comfortable in his own skin.
"He is able to think outside the box as far as helping everyone else with the bigger picture stuff.
"Even the detail stuff of his team-mates etc, and we have seen that flourish massively over the last couple of years, but more so throughout the World Cup.
"He is a very calm, calculated type of individual that will have that reassurance on the rest of the group."
Gonzalo Quesada’s Italy were beaten by England, 27-24, in Rome last weekend and didn’t record a win in last season’s championship.
"I think what we saw, not just last week but certainly over the last 18 months, from the Italian side, you go back to the first game of the last Six Nations against France, they were unlucky to lose that," said Farrell.
"I think the fight has always been there. I think what Kieran [Crowley, former head coach] brought to the setup over the last few years is still banked as far as the nice attractive attacking rugby with numbers at the line.
"It caused a lot of trouble last week as it's done over the last couple of years.
"But I think with the way they played the game last week, there's a little bit more [pragmatism] and less errors, which means that they're going to be hard to beat, there's no doubt about that."
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