Brian O'Driscoll expects Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne to be Ireland's centre partnership at this year's World Cup.
The former Ireland captain, who spent almost his entire career in green at 13 with Gordon D'Arcy in 12 alongside him, says head coach Joe Schmidt will give Henshaw and Payne as much playing time as possible together during the Six Nations to prepare them for the big one later in the year.
O'Driscoll joined Ger in studio on Off The Ball tonight ahead of Ireland's Six Nations opener in Italy tomorrow, and when asked if he was surprised the partnership had been retained for Rome, the Clontarf man replied: "No, they were the first-choice centres in November. They would have been first choice against Australia having beaten South Africa, but Jared got injured in the last few minutes of that South Africa game.
"For me it was a simple enough pick of going back to Robbie and Jared for Joe.
"Joe obviously decided that he wants to give these two guys a good run and, interestingly - just looking at the bench and seeing Felix Jones there - you would imagine that if there’s an injury to Rob Kearney, Jared's not going back to fullback. He’ll use either Tommy (Bowe) or (Simon) Zebo.
"He probably wants to give these guys 80 minutes to bed down their partnership for the World Cup."
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