Andrew Trimble to return to Ireland duty against Wales

Andrew Trimble will play his first Ireland game in over a year in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against Wales as Joe Schmidt rests most of his Six Nations-winning side.

Mike Ross and Jamie Heaslip are the only players to retain starting roles from the win over Scotland in March.

Munster duo Keith Earls and Donnacha Ryan will play their first Ireland games since March 2013.

Ulster trio Paddy Jackson, Darren Cave and Iain Henderson will also start.

Trimble was named Ireland’s player of the year in 2013-14 after helping Ireland clinch that season’s Six Nations.

However, the Ulster wing, 30, missed nearly all of last season after sustaining a toe injury in October.

The Coleraine native was ruled out of Ireland’s successful Six Nations title defence but was then included in Schmidt’s extended 45-man training squad for this autumn’s World Cup.

Munster pair Earls and Ryan have not featured for Ireland during Schmidt’s reign after suffering injury problems.

Earls, who will partner Cave at centre at the Millennium Stadium, was ruled out for the first half of last season with a knee injury and the 31-year-old was then unable to force himself into Ireland’s Six Nations squad.

Like Earls, lock Ryan, 31, has not played since the Six Nations defeat by Italy in March 2013 which was the final match of Declan Kidney’s Ireland reign.

Since then, Ryan has been afflicted by knee and toe injuries with the latter ailment requiring surgery.

The second row did return to action for Munster last Spring but that came too late to force his way into Schmidt’s Six Nations plans.

Ulster fly-half Jackson was ruled out of this year’s Six Nations campaign by a dislocated elbow.

He suffered that injury in a European Champions Cup game against Toulon in January shortly after returning from six weeks out because of a shoulder problem.

Jackson will be partnered by Eoin Reddan at half-back in a backline that also includes Fergus McFadden and Munster’s Felix Jones.

Mike Ross will be joined by his Leinster colleagues Jack McGrath and Richardt Strauss in the front row, with regular hooker Rory Best named on the bench.

Henderson will partner Ryan at lock with Jordi Murphy and Tommy O’Donnell joining Heaslip in the back row.

With Paul O’Connell among the regulars rested, number eight Heaslip will captain the side.

The bench includes Ulster duo Dan Tuohy and Chris Henry, who played in the non-cap game against the Barbarians in May following his return to action after heart surgery.

Ireland: F Jones (Munster); A Trimble (Ulster), K Earls (Munster), D Cave (Ulster), F McFadden (Leinster); P Jackson (Ulster), E Reddan (Leinster); J McGrath (Leinster), R Strauss (Leinster), M Ross (Leinster); I Henderson (Ulster), D Ryan (Munster); J Murphy (Leinster), T O’Donnell (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster) capt.

Replacements: R Best (Ulster), D Kilcoyne (Munster), M Bent (Leinster), D Tuohy (Ulster), C Henry (Ulster), K Marmion (Connacht), I Madigan (Leinster), S Zebo (Munster).