Stephen Ferris has been given extra time to recover from injury ahead of the crunch RBS Six Nations clash with France.
Ireland flanker in race to be fit to face Les Bleus
Stephen Ferris has been given extra time to recover from injury ahead of the RBS Six Nations clash with France.
Ferris missed the victory over Italy through injury, with Ireland coach Declan Kidney hoping to have the Ulsterman available for the crunch tie in Paris on Saturday.
As a result Kidney has left the No.6 shirt vacant to allow Lions tourist Ferris, who trained with the Ireland squad on Tuesday, as much time as possible to make the team.
"We'll make a decision as soon as we can with Stephen, but sometimes you don't make a decision until you have to," he said.
Kevin McLaughlin, who made his debut against Italy, and Sean O'Brien both provisionally named on the bench.
Injury issues
Ronan O'Gara and Paul O'Connell have both recovered from injury to take their places in the starting XV, however Andrew Trimble drops to the bench.
The winger, who had a hand in Ireland's first try against the Azzurri, had been struggling with a knock picked up at Croke Park is replaced by Keith Earls.
"Keith did very well against South Africa last autumn and didn't do anything wrong in December or January," Kidney said.
"I wanted to give Andrew a go to see how he went last week. He went well but Keith deserves his go now. Andrew tweaked his hamstring and we want to give him full time to recover."
Leinster's Jonathan Sexton has been included among an extended substitutes bench but is expected to recover imminently from the dead leg
"Ronan had a very good game against Italy so there was no reason not to play him this week," said Kidney on his selection issue at number 10.
"Jon has been making a good recovery and the final stage of that should be achieved tomorrow when he goes place kicking.
"We're in the lucky position of having two good fly-halves and Ronan's experience will be more than helpful going to Paris."
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace), 6 A.N.Other, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Rory Best, 17 Tom Court, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Sean O'Brien, 20 Kevin McLaughlin, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Jonathan Sexton, 23 Paddy Wallace, 24 Andrew Trimble.
