Declan Kidney has made just one change to the Ireland team to face the USA this Sunday at the Buckshaw Stadium in Santa Clara, bringing in Mike Ross for his first start at tight head prop.

Tom Court drops to the replacements bench, while Tony Buckley is shifted from the right side of the scrum to loose head prop.

Mick O'Driscoll has been named in the side despite the fact that he picked up a minor wrist sprain during last week's unconvincing victory over Canada.

“We felt that after last week's game against Canada that the players who started deserved another chance to improve on that performance," Kidney said.

"We thought long and hard about making further changes to the side, but with only two full training sessions under their belts before the Canada game, we thought that it would be better to give an opportunity for the same players and combinations to find their feet a bit more with some more sessions to work off.

“This tour and also the Churchill Cup is all about building a base of experience with the national coaches and it is particularly tough on the players not selected in the starting XV as they have been training just as hard as the players picked and were pushing for inclusion this week.

"The majority of those who do not start on Sunday or are not in the 22 will all have further opportunities in the Churchill Cup.”

Ireland XV v USA: Gavin Duffy; Barry Murphy, Darren Cave, Ian Whitten, Ian Dowling; Ian Keatley, Peter Stringer; Tony Buckley, Rory Best, Mike Ross; Bob Casey, Mick O'Driscoll, John Muldoon, Niall Ronan, Denis Leamy.

Replacements: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Ryan Caldwell, Donnacha Ryan, Eoin Reddan, Niall O'Connor, Denis Hurley.