Bottom of the table France travel to Dublin to face fourth placed Ireland in the RBS Six Nations Championship on Saturday. This is part of the fifth round of fixtures of this year’s Championship. The match is scheduled to kick off at 19.00 South African Time.
As reported earlier in the week, Ireland were facing a bit of a flyhalf crises and although they announced the bulk of their team they left the flyhalf berth open. This was due to their first choice flyhalf Jonathan Sexton still not quite ready following an injury he sustained earlier in the tournament, while veteran Rona O’Gara who was originally the back-up flyhalf had disapointed in the appearances he made of the bench for Ireland.
To compound matters for Ireland Paddy Jackson, who made his starting debut against Scotland two weeks ago, was also nursing an injury. Jackson has been declared fit now and starts in the number ten jersey on Saturday, while Leinster’s Ian Madigan has been included in the match day squad, on the bench.
There was also some doubt about Ireland’s tighthead prop berth earlier in the week, but this has been cleared up with Mike Ross due to take his place in the starting front row.
Meanwhile, France have included former Natal Sharks player Freddie Micahalak as their starting flyhalf. France will be desperate to get a win as they are in the unfamiliar position at the moment of having played three and won none.
Teams
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Fergus McFadden, 13 Brian O’Driscoll, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip (captain), 7 Sean O’Brien, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Mike McCarthy, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 David Kilcoyne, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Donncha O’Callaghan, 20 Iain Henderson, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Luke Fitzgerald.
France: 15 Yoann Huget, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Maxime Medard, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 7 Louis Picamoles, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Christophe Samson, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 20 Antonie Claassen, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Mathieu Bastareaud.