Sexton ruled out of clash with France
Johnny Sexton has been ruled out of Ireland’s Six Nations match against France due to a hamstring strain; James Ryan will lead the side in Paris.
Head coach Andy Farrell was expected to name an unchanged starting XV for the visit to Paris before their influential fly-half sustained an injury in training.
Joey Carbery will now start in the 10 jersey alongside scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, and it will be Carbery’s first Six Nations start. Connacht’s Jack Carty will provide fly-half cover on the bench. Ireland’s centre partnership of Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose will continue together in midfield.
Tadhg Beirne joins Ryan inside the engine room at lock with Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan coming together in the back row. Andrew Porter, Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong join forces in the front row.
Iain Henderson, Robbie Henshaw and Jack Carty have all been added to Ireland’s replacements bench for this Round Two encounter.
Together, British and Irish Lions Henderson and Henshaw bring 118 Test caps of experience to the squad, however both have been restricted to limited game time this season.
Henderson has not played since sustaining an ankle injury in his province’s Heineken Champions Cup win over Northampton on December 17 – his only outing since Ireland beat the Kiwis in November.
Henshaw has made just four appearances this season and missed some of his country’s pre-tournament training camp in Portugal due to a groin issue.
Head coach Farrell does not expect Sexton to miss the rest of the championship and said the 36-year-old could be fit to feature against Italy on February 27.
“It’s a small hamstring strain that is definitely going to keep him out for this weekend,” Farrell said. “We don’t envisage it being difficult at all really. He might be a week to 10 days, something like that.
“But what we don’t want to do is to risk anything and make that worse and take him out of the competition completely. We expect him to be back pretty soon.”
Ireland XV: 15. Hugo Keenan, 14. Andrew Conway, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Bundee Aki, 11. Mack Hansen, 10. Joey Carbery, 9. Jamison Gibson Park, 1. Andrew Porter, 2. Ronan Kelleher, 3. Tadhg Furlong, 4. Tadhg Beirne, 5. James Ryan (captain), 6. Caelan Doris, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. Jack Conan.
Replacements: 16. Dan Sheehan, 17. Cian Healy, 18. Finlay Bealham, 19. Iain Henderson, 20. Peter O’Mahony, 21. Conor Murray, 22. Jack Carty, 23. Robbie Henshaw.
Fabien Galthie has handed a first Six Nations start to Yoram Moefana, who replaces Jonathan Danty after he suffered an ankle injury against Italy.
France’s head coach has largely kept his side consistent from the one that faced the Azzurri, although he has promoted Francois Cros from the bench into the back row. Cros will join up alongside Anthony Jelonch and Gregory Alldritt.
Galthie has reverted to a 6-2 split on the bench, with Thibaud Flament amongst the six forwards selected.
France XV: 15. Melvyn Jaminet, 14. Damian Penaud, 13. Gael Fickou, 12. Yoram Moefana, 11. Gabin Villiere, 10. Romain Ntamack, 9. Antoine Dupont (captain), 1. Cyril Baille, 2. Julien Marchand, 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Cameron Woki, 5. Paul Willemse, 6. Francois Cros, 7. Anthony Jelonch and 8. Gregory Alldritt.
Replacements: 16. Peato Mauvuka, 17. Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18. Demba Bamba, 19. Romain Taofifenua, 20. Thibaud Flament, 21. Dylan Cretin, 22. Maxime Lucu, 23. Thomas Ramos.
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