DUBLIN HAVE A chance to draw a line under their nightmare start to the league tomorrow evening when they return to a floodlit Croke Park to host Tipperary in the final installment of the 2012 Spring Series.
Faced with a growing injury list, Anthony Daly makes three changes to the side which suffered cruel defeat at the hands of Kilkenny in Nowlan Park last Sunday.
The Dubs are without two of their star forwards Paul Ryan and Conor McCormack, who are ruled out through injury and likely to miss the remainder of the campaign.
Ryan suffered a Grade 2 hamstring injury and is expected to be out for four to six weeks, while McCormack is thought to need three weeks to recover from a shoulder injury.
In their place, Alan McCrabbe makes his first start of the league season alongside Eamon Dillon, who scored one of Dublin’s five goals when he came off the bench last weekend.
Gary Maguire returns in goal, with Alan Nolan dropping to the bench.
Declan Ryan has made two changes to the Tipperary starting XV. Thomas Stapleton comes in at wing-back in place of John O’Keeffe, while Gearóid Ryan is passed fit to take his place in the half-forward line alongside Noel McGrath and Pa Bourke.
Dublin: G Maguire; N Corcoran, P Schutte, R Trainor; M Carton, J Boland, J McCaffrey; S Durkan, S Lambert; L Rushe, R O’Dwyer, D Sutcliffe; E Dillon, D O’Callaghan, A McCrabbe.
Tipperary: D Gleeson; D Maher, P Curran, M Cahill; T Stapleton, C O’Mahony, Padraic Maher; B Maher, J Woodlock; G Ryan, N McGrath, P Bourke; J O’Neill, B O’Meara, S Bourke.
