Kearney: Henshaw-Payne pairing exciting for Ireland

New Zealand-born Payne, who became Irish-qualified last month, will win his first cap on Saturday after playing an instrumental role for Ulster since his arrival in 2011.

Henshaw has appeared just three times for Ireland himself but the 21-year-old is one of reasons why Pat Lam's Connacht have made the leap to genuine play-off contenders in the GUINNESS PRO12 this year.

Now the duo will take to the field side by side and despite their lack of experience on the international stage, Kearney is backing them to turn heads at the Aviva Stadium.

"It's really exciting," Kearney said. "They complement each other really well. They are big lads, the biggest centre partnership we have seen in a long time.

"Robbie brings a really good freshness and youth there and although Jared is in for cap number one, he brings a huge amount of experience to his game as well.

"When you go into these big games, the one thing that I know the two guys will give is 100 per cent commitment and a huge level of physicality. Once you bring that into any game, regardless of the size of it, we will be well on our way.

"Okay, they may not have played that combination together, or Robbie might not have played a huge amount at 12 but sometimes that can be overplayed a little bit and if you bring a huge amount of aggression, physicality and commitment, it makes up for a huge amount of the rest."

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