Wellington - Ireland confirmed Thursday that Rory Best would be their starting hooker to play Wales in a World Cup quarter-final on Saturday.
The decision had been delayed 24 hours as their top number two struggled to recover from a shoulder injury suffered in last week's 36-6 defeat of Italy that confirmed them as Pool C winners.
When the quarter-final team was named on Wednesday, Best was included in the side but with the rider that Sean Cronin would start with Damien Varley added to the bench if he failed to recover in time.
A statement from the Ireland side on Thursday said Best would start with Cronin among the replacements.
Teams:Ireland:
15 Robert Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy
Substitutes: 16 Sean Cronin,
17 Tom Court, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21
Jonathan Sexton, 22 Andrew Trimble
Wales:
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan
Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike
Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (captain), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5
Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Gethin
Jenkins
Substitutes: 16 Lloyd Burns, 17 Paul James, 18 Bradley
Davies, 19 Ryan Jones, 20 Lloyd Williams, 21 James Hook, 22 Scott
Williams