Ireland rest Healy, Kearney from England World Cup warm-up
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| Ireland full-back Rob Kearney trains during at the Olympic Stadium in Rome on the eve of the Six Nations match against Italy on February 6, 2015 |
Joe Schmidt, the Ireland coach has decided to give Schmidt more time to recover following the loosehead's long-standing neck problems.
Healy only returned to full training this week, following neck surgery in May, and, at one stage, was doubtful even to make Ireland's final 31-man squad for the World Cup.
Jack McGrath starts in his place.
Kearney suffered a bruised knee but was available for selection this weekend. Schmidt, however, has decided to start Simon Zebo instead.
"We just felt it was important to get Simon a little bit more time at full-back once we decided he was going to cover full-back for us," said Schmidt.
"Rob Kearney has a bruise on his knee but he trained fully and we could have picked him," added the New Zealander.
Meanwhile, centre Keith Earls was not included in the team named Thursday by Schmidt, with the midfielder having suffering a heavy blow in Six Nations champions Ireland's 16-10 warm-up defeat by Wales in Dublin last weekend.
"Keith has completed his return to play protocols thus far, so we'd expect that he would probably have been fit to be selected," said Schmidt.
"But the thing with Keith and what we're trying to do with balance at the moment, there are some guys that play really well fresh and others that need to get a bit more a game rhythm, and Keith's had a couple of outings.
"In the first game in the Millennium I thought he looked super-sharp, so to have him fresh where there's a small degree of doubt then it just made sense.
"We wanted to give Simon another run at full-back, and Dave Kearney and Tommy Bowe again on the wings."
In the pack, the first-choice backrow of Peter O'Mahony, Sean O'Brien and Jamie Heaslip are reunited for the first time since the Six Nations, with senior half-backs Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton also in the starting side.
Both sides will be looking for a morale-boosting win ahead of the World Cup, with tournament hosts England beaten 25-20 by France in Paris in their last warm-up match.
England open the World Cup against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18.
Ireland (15-1)
Simon Zebo; Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne Robbie Henshaw, Dave Kearney; Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray; Jamie Heaslip, Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony; Paul O'Connell (capt), Devin Toner; Mike Ross, Rory Best, Jack McGrath
Replacements: Richardt Strauss, Tadhg Furlong, Nathan White, Donnacha Ryan, Chris Henry, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan, Darren Cave
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