Montgomerie to open proceedings

Colin Montgomerie has been given his wish by Nick Faldo - fellow Scot Marc Warren is his partner for the start of the Seve Trophy match between Britain and Ireland and the Continental Europe side led by Seve Ballesteros at The Heritage in Co Laois tomorrow.

Montgomerie and wild card pick Warren will lead things off against Swedes Peter Hanson and Robert Karlsson in the opening fourballs as Britain and Ireland defend the trophy they won by a comfortable five points at The Wynyard in England two years ago.

A month ago the eight-time European number one named last season's Rookie of the Year as one of 35 possibles for next year's Ryder Cup. Three days later Warren won the Johnnie Walker Championship.

The four other debutants on the home side have also been given a partner who has played in the match before.

Simon Dyson, the other wild card pick, and Oliver Wilson are with Paul Casey and Justin Rose respectively, while Phillip Archer teams up with Welshman Bradley Dredge and Graeme Storm with Nick Dougherty.

Ballesteros has gone down national lines with his selections - as well as the two Swedes Danes Thomas Bjorn and Soren Hansen are together, as are Spaniards Miguel Angel Jimenez and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and French pair Raphael Jacquelin and Gregory Havret.

His other two players are Austrian Markus Brier and Finn Mikko Ilonen. They oppose Rose and Wilson in the bottom game.

For the first time in the events brief history, there will be no Irish player in the Britain and Ireland side following Padraig Harrington's withdrawal and Faldo's decision not to include the likes of Paul McGinley among his wildcards.

And Harrington and McGinley are far from the only notable absentees from this week's match.

Britain and Ireland are also without Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter - he is getting married on Saturday - while Continental Europe lack their top four players in Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Niclas Fasth and Anders Hansen and Jose Maria Olazabal, Carl Pettersson and Bernhard Langer also declined the chance to replace them.

It means that only two of Europe's current top 10, Justin Rose and Paul Casey, are on view.