Rory Best to lead Ireland against France

Ireland have recalled several experienced players in their line-up for the upcoming Six Nations clash against France to be played in Dublin on Sunday.

Joe Schmidt's side suffered a setback in the opening round with a 20-32 defeat to England but bounced back with wins over Scotland and Italy that got their campaign on track taking them to the third position in the table.

Garry Ringrose takes the centre position where he replaced Chris Farrell and will join Bundee Aki. Johnny Sexton retains the fly-half role while CJ Stander returns to the number eight slot replacing Jordi Murphy. Sean Cronin and Sean O'Brien are left out of the matchday 23 squad with Rory Best and Josh van der Flier taking their positions.

Iain Henderson and James Ryan form second-row partnership with Peter O’Mahony, van der Flier and Stander slotted in the back-row. The final change sees Cian Healy coming into the starting line-up at the expense of Dave Kilcoyne, who now moves to the bench which also has Niall Scannell, John Ryan, Ultan Dillane, Jack Conan, John Cooney, Jack Carty and Jordan Larmour.

Ireland starting line-up: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 James Ryan, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Cian Healy

Replacements: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 John Ryan, 19 Ultan Dillane, 20 Jack Conan, 21 John Cooney, 22 Jack Carty, 23 Jordan Larmour