Rob Kearney and Keith Earls return to Ireland line-up for Japan clash

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has made four changes to the line-up for the second round World Cup clash against Japan scheduled to be played in Shizuoka on Saturday.

Keith Earls and Rob Kearney have overcome their respective injuries to return to the starting line-up. Earls takes the place at right wing replacing Andrew Conway while Kearney takes the position at fullback taking the place of Jordan Lamour, who drops to the bench.

The other two changes will see Chris Farrell forming a centre partnership with Garry Ringrose while Jack Carty replaces Johnny Sexton at fly-half with Conor Murray at scrum half. This will also be 50th Test appearance from Iain Henderson while Joey Carbery has recovered from his injury to find a place on the bench.

Following their 27-3 win over Scotland, Ireland are positioned second in Pool A behind Samoa.

Ireland starting line up: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Chris Farrell, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jack Carty, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 James Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Cian Healy

Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Tadhg Beirne, 20 Rhys Ruddock, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Jordan Larmour