Ireland woe as D'Arcy is ruled out

Ireland centre Gordon D'Arcy has failed a late fitness test and is ruled out of Saturday's Six Nations encounter with Scotland at Murrayfield. The Leinster star joins his midfield partner Brian O'Driscoll on the sidelines.

D'Arcy is replaced in the team by Kevin Maggs with Shane Horgan moving from wing to take O'Driscoll's place.

Girvan Dempsey moving up into the starting line-up and takes up the left-wing berth with Geordan Murphy remaining at fullback.

Gavin Duffy of NEC Harlequins has taken Dempsey's spot on the replacements bench.

Duffy, 23, has one Test cap to his name, won during Ireland's tour of South African in June.

"We gave Gordon a chance but it didn't work out," said Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan.

"In terms of the risk element, it was a sensible precaution.

"He should be fine for the next game but we do not want to tempt fate.

"We have been practising with this [new] line-up through the week just in case."

Ireland (revised): 15 Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers), 14 Girvan Dempsey (Leinster), 13 Shane Horgan (Leinster), 12 Kevin Maggs (Ulster), 11 Dennis Hickie (Leinster), 10 Ronan O'Gara (Munster), 9 Peter Stringer (Munster), 8 Anthony Foley (Munster), 7 Johnny O'Connor (London Wasps), 6 Simon Easterby (Llanelli Scarlets), 5 Paul O'Connell (Munster), 4 Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster), 3 John Hayes (Munster), 2 Shane Byrne (Leinster), 1 Reggie Corrigan (Leinster).
Replacements: 16 Frankie Sheahan (Munster), 17 Marcus Horan (Munster), 18 Donncha O'Callaghan (Munster), 19 Eric Miller (Leinster), 20 Guy Easterby (Leinster), 21 David Humphreys (Ulster), 22 Gavin Duffy (NEC Harlequins).

Kick-off: 16.00 GMT