Mike Ross on guard for ‘unpredictable’ French

Mike Ross isn’t one of those youngsters who knows nothing of defeat to France.

The Leinster tight-head has played in all four of the recent meetings in which Ireland have drawn twice and won the other pair, but his first year as a regular in green coincided with three successive losses to Sunday’s opponents.

“It’s a cliché, but the French can be fairly unpredictable as to how they’re going to play,” he said. “It’s certainly something we experienced first-hand when we won the Six Nations in 2014. France chose to put on their best performance and we just, just squeaked home.

“They’re generally more dangerous at home, but they’ve been playing pretty well and we certainly have a lot of respect for them. It’s not so long ago that Paris was a graveyard for Irish teams and that’s still in the back of our minds.”

France’s scrum looked less than solid at times against Canada ten days ago, but their maul was excellent. Ireland, by contrast, delivered at the set-piece but had their maul interrupted by some clever if questionable Italian tactics.

“Well, what we really want from our scrum is a solid base, a good way of delivering a solid platform for our backs,” said Ross. “It’s not all about driving over and winning penalties, although it’s nice when it happens.

“But we have to be realistic and realise it’s not going to happen every scrum. First and foremost we want a solid, clean platform and if you look back at our games we’ve delivered that for the most part over the last three years or so.”

Joe Schmidt has a decision to make as to who starts at loosehead: Jack McGrath or Cian Healy who has banked 95 minutes of action since neck surgery and the resultant nerve damage to his right hand?

Cian Healy in training

Healy insists he is able for a sixty-minute shift, if required, even against a front row as gnarled and physical as that of the French.

“They’re strong and they’re certainly going after teams, but that is a similar kind of mentality to ourselves,” said Healy who claimed to have a new perspective on things after an injury that left him “looking over that cliff” into premature retirement.

“We have worked a lot on our scrum to be a dominant platform and to have a positive shape going forward. Everything is right down to the last detail. Whatever they are doing we are armed and well enough to go at it.”