Former Ireland head coach Eddie O'Sullivan says he is surprised that Luke Fitzgerald has been chosen to play at 12 after Robbie Henshaw was left out of the team to face Canada as a precaution.
Speaking to Off The Ball tonight, Eddie feels that Ulster's Darren Cave would be a more natural replacement for the Connacht centre.
"Once Henshaw dropped out, there was always going to be a change. Darren Cave might be a bit taken aback. He would have been the obvious replacement at 12 as a straight in, hard-running centre, who carries the ball very well. In his last outing, he played very, very well in terms of winning the collisions," said Eddie.
"So it's a surprise. Luke's a very different player and certainly he can play centre, but 12 wouldn't be his most natural position. He'd be more of a 13 than a 12. Now, the numbers on the back may change but again, Jared Payne is more of an outside centre than, so we've got two outside centres playing. Maybe it's a case that they feel that those two players could cause problems for Canada in the midfield."
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