Ireland's Jonny Sexton set for battle with Mathieu Bastareaud

Ireland fly-half Jonny Sexton is expecting some rough treatment from France centre Mathieu Bastareaud in Sunday's crucial Rugby World Cup clash.

Toulon battering-ram Bastareaud was tasked with stopping Sexton in February's Six Nations clash, with the playmaker only just back after a three-month concussion lay-off.

Ireland choke-tackled Bastareaud out of the equation to win 18-11 in Dublin that night, and will demand more of the same to chase a victory in Cardiff that would allow Joe Schmidt's men to avoid New Zealand's half of the draw in the knockout stages.

"He's a hard man to stop and I know it better than most," said Sexton of Bastareaud.

"I've come off second-best a couple of times but he sucks in a lot of defenders and he looks like he's got himself in really good shape.

"It's the same for all their players, I think they possess power all across their backline and pace to burn as well.

"So we've got to be on top of our game from that point of view, and I'm sure we'll come up with some kind of plan to help us stop him.

"They said before the last game they were going to come down my channel because I was obviously coming back from a lay-off, and I don't see it being any different this time.

"You always want to target the opposition 10 and I'm sure they'll go there again. I don't know if I like the physicality, but it's part and parcel of the modern game.

"Everyone on the pitch has got to be able to contribute defensively and physically, and it's not often you see guys that can't do it anymore. And hopefully I'll tick that box.

"He adds an extra dimension to them and I think he's one of their key ball-carriers.

Everyone on the pitch has got to be able to contribute defensively and physically, and it's not often you see guys that can't do it anymore.

"He's a guy that we're going to have to pay close attention to but if we think about him too much then guys like Wesley Fofana and Brice Dulin will run off him and find those holes, so we've got to make sure we're paying him the respect he deserves.

"They've got players across the park that can hurt us so we've got to be a hell of a lot better than we were [in the 16-9 victory over Italy on Sunday].

"We probably do need the best performance of Joe's time to win this weekend. We know we've got to concentrate on ourselves because if we get our performance right we can be a good team."

Ireland expect Jared Payne to beat his foot problem in time to be available to face France, despite the Ulster centre still employing a compression boot to speed his recovery.