Ireland v France: Teams

Ireland have placed veteran scrum-half Peter Stringer on standby for Sunday's RBS Six Nations clash with France.

Stringer has been named as cover as fellow Munsterman Tomas O'Leary has been struggling with a back complaint.

O'Leary's participation in training has been limited by the injury, although he has been named in the starting XV to face the defending champions.

Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton said: "Tomas has had a stiff back which has not sufficiently improved over the course of the week, so we felt it was prudent to call Peter up to remain with the squad.

"Tomas is not ruled out of the game, but we will wait and see how he progresses over the next 48 hours before making any decisions on changes to the matchday 22."

Ireland coach Declan Kidney has recalled fit-again No.8 Jamie Heaslip following the 13-11 victory over Italy.

Denis Leamy, therefore, drops to the bench, with Sean O'Brien moving to the blindside and Shane Jennings missing out completely.

Honour

Scrum coach Didier Retiere claims the France front row is determined is build on its powerful display against Scotland.

Thomas Domingo, Nicolas Mas and William Servat gave Scotland's pack a torrid time in Paris, and even won a penalty try.

Now the trio have their sights set on the Irish front row, with Retiere insisting the hosts should beware.

"In terms of the image that rugby has for French people, the scrum is a sort of badge of honour," said Retiere.

"We love to fight together, sometimes too much."

Injury to Maxime Mermoz means that Damien Traille will start in the centres, with Clement Poitrenaud coming into the side at full-back.

Poitrenaud's place on the bench is taken by the experienced Yannick Jauzion, with prop Sylvain Marconnet also named among the replacements ahead of Luc Ducalcon

Ireland: 15 Luke Fitzgerald, 14 Fergus McFadden, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (capt), 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Paddy Wallace.

France: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Yoann Huget, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Maxime Médard, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Jerome Thion, 19 Sébastien Chabal, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Yannick Jauzion, 22 Vincent Clerc.