France v Ireland: Teams

France will aim to keep their Grand Slam quest on track when they welcome Ireland to Paris in Sunday's re-arranged fixture.

At Stade de France, Sunday March 4, kick-off 3pm

Declan Kidney has named an unchanged Ireland side for the re-arranged RBS Six Nations trip to France on Sunday. The head coach remains faithful to the starting XV that faced Italy last weekend, while the bench is also the same. Conor Murray has held off the challenge of Eoin Reddan at scrum-half despite the latter injecting pace into the game after stepping off the bench in the second half at Lansdowne Road. Lock Donncha O'Callaghan and openside Sean O'Brien also faced fierce competition to remain in the starting XV, but Kidney has retained both players. "We took a look at how we played against Italy. We have an eight-day turnaround which has given us more time to freshen up," said Kidney. "The errors that were made we can adjust and we'll be better for having that 80 minutes under the belt.

Hostile

"The lads who came on against Italy did exceptionally well and made a hugely positive impact, but I had to weigh that up against the lads who did a lot of the unseen work earlier in the game." France have won 11 of their last 12 meetings, with Ireland having been successful on just two occasions in Paris in the last 60 years. "We've all been to hostile environments with our provinces in the past. We must drawn on that experience," said captain Paul O'Connell. France have made two changes as they aim to keep their Grand Slam challenge on course. The original encounter was postponed at the last minute due to freezing temperatures in Paris. And following the narrow win over Scotland last time out, coach Philippe Saint-Andre has recalled Julien Bonnaire and Clement Poitrenaud. Bonnaire replaces the benched Louis Picamoles, with Imanol Harinordoquy shifting to No.8, with full-back Poitrenaud a straight replacement for the injured Maxime Medard. Scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili remains sidelined so Julien Dupuy will continue to provide cover from the bench. Ireland team: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell (captain), 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Peter O'Mahony, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Fergus McFadden. France: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Julien Malzieu, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 William Servat, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Lionel Nallet, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Maxime Mermoz.