Sean O’Brien has been dropped from the Ireland squad for Sunday’s visit of France after his below-par performance against Italy, with Joe Schmidt leaving the British and Irish Lions forward out of his entire matchday squad.
Head coach Joe Schmidt has elected to make seven changes to his starting line from the side that laboured to victory in Rome, with the bulk of his first-choice pack returning for what will be Schmidt’s final home Six Nations match in charge of the Irish.
Captain Rory Best returns as expected along with loosehead prop Cian Healy and the second-row unit of Iain Henderson and James Ryan, but the surprise comes in Leinster’s Josh van der Flier being selected ahead of club colleague O’Brien, who also misses out on a place among the replacements to No 8 Jack Conan.
CJ Stander returns to the starting XV in place of Conan, while the only change in the Irish back line sees fit-again centre Garry Ringrose return in place of Chris Harris.
Niall Scannell retains his place on the bench after Sean Cronin was brutally axed from the squad in mid-week after failing to impress when making his first Six Nations start against Italy, while in the injury-enforced absence of fly-half Joey Carbery, Jack Carty keeps his place as Johnny Sexton’s back-up.
"With Sean, Jack Conan was going to be given the opportunity against Scotland and he didn't get that, so we wanted to give him the chance,” Schmidt said in explaining O’Brien’s omission.
"Josh van der Flier hasn't let us down at all. So it's a perfect opportunity to put him back in there, so he's very much keen and ready to go.
“Jack Conan was initially due to start against Scotland, so we wanted to give him an opportunity to get back in with a foot in the door and demonstrate what he can do off the bench.”
Henderson returns to the starting line-up after seeing his start to the championship delayed by injury, along with Munster lock Tadhg Beirne. But while the former was able to return for the trip to Italy as a replacement, the latter has not been included yet despite making his comeback from injury for his province.
"As tempted as we were with Tadhg Beirne, he's just been a little bit sore this week coming back from injury,” Schmidt added. “He was in the mix but he's going to get the weekend off, to come back in refreshed and train next week.
"Ultan Dillane has played very well for us, so we wanted to reward his performance in Italy."
Ireland team to face France
Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Johnny Sexton, Connor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Tadhg Furlong; Iain Henderson, James Ryan; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, CJ Stander.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Dave Kilcoyne, John Ryan, Ulthan Dillane, Jack Conan, John Cooney, Jack Carty, Jordan Larmour.
