Kidney has only kept three players from the XV that fell to a 16-12 defeat to South Africa last weekend, Jamie Heaslip remains as captain at No.8 with Conor Murray at scrum-half and Mike Ross at tight-head prop. 

In place of the other 12 comes a swathe of fresh blood including three uncapped Ulster stars in Paddy Jackson, Craig Gilroy and Luke Marshall although they will not be making their Test debuts as it is a non-cap fixture.

And despite the wholesale changes Kidney, whose side are on a run of five defeats in a row that stretches all the way back to the 2012 RBS 6 Nations, is confident that new faces will re-inject some energy to his side.

“We know that it will be a full test for us and it's a vote of confidence in the players that we've picked,” he said.

"These lads who are playing have been training really well over the course of the last two-and-a-half weeks and we feel they deserve their go.

"You have this feeling in the lead-up to matches and fellas would feel good about it but when you get to five minutes before kick-off and the referee's calling you and you go into that 'oh crap' moment and they have to take a deep breath and go for it, that's what I'm really looking forward to seeing.

"And if these lads do what they've been doing week in, week out in a green jersey, then brilliant for us.

"Nobody likes losing a match but the spirit is actually really good. The lads will have a better answer to that than myself but I couldn't be asking any more of them.”

iRELAND: 

15. Denis Hurley
14. Fergus McFadden
13. Darren Cave
12. Luke Marshall
11. Craig Gilroy
10. Paddy Jackson
9. Conor Murray
1. David Kilcoyne
2. Sean Cronin
3. Mike Ross
4. Donncha O’Callaghan
5. Dan Tuohy
6. Iain Henderson
7. John Muldoon
8. Jamie Heaslip

Replacements:
16. Richardt Strauss
17. Cian Healy
18. Michael Bent
19. Donncha Ryan
20. Chris Henry
21. Paul Marshall
22. Jonathan Sexton
23. Simon Zebo