Ireland head coach Declan Kidney is expected to select an unchanged team for Saturday’s game in France as that originally named to face Wales last week, with Keith Earls tipped to come back into the side in place of Fergus McFadden.
Earls was named at outside centre for the Six Nations opener at the Aviva last Sunday but was subsequently ruled out of the team in order to be with his newborn baby girl.
Concerns over the health of the new arrival have now eased and Earls is almost certain to return to the side as Gordon D’Arcy’s centre partner, with McFadden – unceremoniously dumped out of the way by George North for the second Welsh try – to drop to the replacements bench.
That would see David Kearney left out of the match-day squad entirely this time around.
The indications from the Irish camp are that the remainder of the side will be unchanged, so Donncha O’Callaghan is seen as likely to retain his place in the second row ahead of Munster teammate Donnacha Ryan.
Stephen Ferris, who avoided any suspension after being cited for the tackle which afforded Wales their match-winning penalty last week, is free to start in the back row.
Conor Murray will retain his place ahead of Eoin Reddan at scrum half while Johnny Sexton is once again set to be preferred to Ronan O’Gara, who given the fact that the game will be screened by French television is likely to be spared the embarrassingly repetitive lingering camera shots every time Sexton does something even a little below par.
The Ireland team is announced at around lunchtime today (Thursday), at which point you’ll find out one of two things: that this article was spot on, or that it was a waste of your time and mine.
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