Ireland make one change for game against France
Johnny Sexton is declared fit for the game against France
©PA
Ireland have made one forced change for the second round Six Nations clash against France to be played at Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
In-form hooker Dan Sheenan misses out on the selection due to a hamstring injury with Ulster’s Rob Herring replacing him in the line up that won the opening game against Wales with Ronan Kelleher joining the replacements.
Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray have overcame their fitness concerns to start at fly-half and scrum half respectively while Andrew Porter and James Ryan are set to make their 50th international appearance.
"It's not nice for Dan," said head coach Andy Farrell.
"A fantastic player at the top of his form. Anyone would miss a player in that kind of form. I sound like a broken record, but it's great because this is exactly what's going to happen down the track in the World Cup.
"International rugby is only going to get bigger and better so it's always going to be about the squad.
"When you get to the World Cup, you've a small squad. There's rightly a 12-day turnaround as far as concussions concerned so you're always going to be numbers down and you have to roll with the punches."
Ireland: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 James Lowe, 10 Johnny Sexton (c) 9 Conor Murray, 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 James Ryan, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Rob Herring, 1 Andrew Porter
Reserves: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Tom O’Toole, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Bundee Aki
