Better late than never as Ross Byrne comes in from the cold

The question has to be asked: would Byrne be able to make light of that inexperience at the elite level should Johnny Sexton be unable to start or finish a crucial pool game against the Scots or Saffers? Or a quarter-final against the All Blacks or les Bleus?

RECALL: Ross Byrne during an Ireland rugby squad training session in the IRFU High Performance Centre at the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

This shouldn’t be a week infiltrated by chat about the World Cup. 

The meeting of France and Ireland last spring proved to be the game of the Six Nations, the differentiator between Grand Slam winners and oh-so-close. This one should stand unsupported on its own two feet.