Kidney delays naming flyhalf for France tie

After sensationally dropping Ronan O’Gara from his extended squad Declan Kidney has heightened the curiosity over the Irish number 10 jersey by delaying his choice of outhalf for Saturday’s encounter with France at the Aviva Stadium.

Speaking at today’s team announcement Kidney confirmed that Jonathan Sexton has been ruled out of this weekend’s game as he continues to recover from the leg injury sustained against England.

The Irish head coach confirmed that Paddy Jackson, who is nursing a slight hamstring strain, and Ian Madigan will fill the flyhalf and reserve flyhalf positions on Saturday but he will wait until later in the week before deciding who will start.

Elsewhere the team shows three changes from the last outing, with Mike McCarthy and Cian Healy coming into the forwards in place of Donncha O'Callaghan and Tom Court respectively.

Craig Gilroy has failed to recover sufficiently from his groin strain and has been ruled out of the game with Fergus McFadden coming into the team on the right wing in his place.

Declan Fitzpatrick has also been ruled out of the game due to a calf strain and his position among the replacements will be confirmed later in the week.

Ireland (v France): 15 - Rob Kearney 14 - Fergus McFadden 13 - Brian O'Driscoll 12 - Luke Marshall 11 - Keith Earls 10 - A.N. Other 9 - Conor Murray 1 - Cian Healy 2 - Rory Best 3 - Mike Ross

4 - Mike McCarthy 5 - Donnacha Ryan 6 - Peter O'Mahony 7 - Sean O'Brien 8 - Jamie Heaslip (capt)

Replacements: 16 - Sean Cronin 17 - David Kilcoyne 18 - A.N. Other 19 - Donncha O'Callaghan

20 - Iain Henderson 21 - Eoin Reddan