Ireland prop Marcus Horan misses the Murrayfield match

The Munster prop picked up a calf injury and is replaced by Simon Best who gets his first Six Nations start with Bryan Young on the bench.

Denis Hickie came through training on Friday with no reaction to the back spasm he suffered on Thursday.

However, coach Eddie O'Sullivan has opted to keep Geordan Murphy in the squad as a precautionary measure.

Interview: Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan

Murphy was drafted into the panel following Hickie's injury in training.

Andrew Trimble is likely to be promoted to the starting line-up if the Leinster player fails to recover in time.

"Denis trained this morning and everything seemed fine, but obviously the problem with a back spasm is that it could go backwards again and if it does we could be in trouble tomorrow," said O'Sullivan.

"We'll just have to see how he goes in the warm-up and I think we'll leave it to the last minute to be 100% sure.

"Marcus Horan was just warming up and he felt a tightness at the top of the calf, which is a little bit of concern given that it is only 24 hours out.

"I prefer to call these things earlier than later but in this scenario you always give the guys every opportunity." O'Sullivan named an unchanged starting line-up for the Murrayfield clash.

Wasps scrum-half Eoin Reddan is among the replacements instead of the injured Isaac Boss.

Boss was forced out on Monday following a scan on his injured left shoulder.

Reddan has one international appearance to his name, when he came on as a late replacement for Brian O'Driscoll during last season's high-scoring defeat by France in Paris.

The former Munster player moved to Wasps two seasons ago, and quickly forced his way into the starting line-up.

Ireland: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, D Hickie; R O'Gara, P Stringer; S Best, R Best, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, S Easterby, D Wallace, D Leamy.
Replacements: J Flannery, B Young, M O'Driscoll, N Best, E Reddan, P Wallace, A Trimble.