Joe Schmidt has announced the Ireland team to take on France in Dublin this weekend, with a quartet of stars returning to the squad in the form of Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip, Johnny Sexton and Cain Healy.
Sean O’Brien starts in the place of Tommy O’Donnell, who is unlucky to drop out of the squad altogether after an impressive performance in Rome that included a superb solo try. Jamie Heaslip displaces Jordi Murphy at number eight, with Murphy’s ability to play across the back row seeing him pip O’Donnell to a spot on the bench.
Johnny Sexton starts at fly-half with Ian Keatley dropping out of the squad, the greater game-changing potential of Ian Madigan again present on the bench. Cian Healy returns from a lengthy injury lay-off to take his place on the bench.
IRELAND TEAM TO PLAY FRANCE:
15. Rob Kearney
14. Tommy Bowe
13. Jared Payne
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Simon Zebo
10. Johnny Sexton
9. Conor Murray
1. Jack McGrath
2. Rory Best
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Paul O’Connell
6. Peter O’Mahony
7. Sean O’Brien
8. Jamie Heaslip
Replacements: 16. Sean Cronin 17. Cian Healy 18. Marty Moore 19. Iain Henderson 20. Jordi Murphy 21. Isaac Boss 22. Ian Madigan 23. Felix Jones
7 replies on “Six Nations 2015: Ireland team to play France”
Great looking team. Hope there isn’t too much rust around. Rust never sleeps.
DDD
Maybe, esp @ b/row, maybe fly1/2, but will their fr row hold England last up?
‘Live Rust’ is better.
” but will their fr row hold England last up?”
Hey, hey, my, my, old man, for what it’s worth, like a hurricane! – don’t let it bring you down,
DDD
dingdongdenny
‘For what it’s worth’ (is the odd 1 out as it was sung by Buffalo Springfield), my ? is valid, because if Ireland, looking fwd, do hold England, it’ll likely take them ‘outta the black & into the blue’.
However, 1 game @ a time I guess. No pt getting 2 far ahead. They don’t want to get ‘lost in France’.
No chance of us getting lost in France as we are playing them in Dublin! Nothing to worry about.
DDD
It looks a very strong team ok but i still don’t warm to schmidt just something dosen’t seem right with this ireland set up. I mean ok we had a good autumn and played well in the last year but i still feel that we are way to restricted in our style of play . Expansive rugby has been a hall mark of succesful irish teams in the past e.g. g slam in 2009 we scored 14 tries and look at leinster in europe how they play in big finals over the years scoring lots of tries. . The next 2 games v france and england are going to really define this irish team for the future so there is going to be very interesting weeks ahead.
johne
Bit late now, but agree in part regds style of play being ltd. Suited 1 Englander fan I can’t recall off the top of my head now, but Schmidt had Leinster playing a more all court, fluent game with their backs playing better than NH Int’al teams IMO. He may be keeping his powder dry as he seems to be pretty smart & does what he needs to do, i.e., wins. So far @ least. I do agree that @ some pt tho, he’ll need to have a more all round game to make Ireland less predictable, esp for the WC. May need a little patience for now & see how Ireland go in the 6N, altho I am a bit surprised myself.