Ireland vs France
Six Nations 2019
Venue: Aviva Stadium
Kick-off: 3:00pm GMT, Sunday, March 10
Ireland return to Six Nations action in round four with a home clash against a notoriously unpredictable France team that have finally shown signs of life following a truly awful start to a World Cup year.
After a stunning loss to England in Dublin and an away victory over an error-strewn Scotland side, the defending Grand Slam champions trailed at half-time against Italy at the Stadio Olimpico before eventually struggling their way to a 26-16 bonus-point win.
Joe Schmidt admitted after that laborious performance in Rome that the men in green were a 'bit broken' after their dismantling by England on opening weekend and they will hope to restore some confidence against France.
Les Bleus followed up their second-half meltdown against Wales with a humiliating thrashing at Twickenham, yet clawed back some pride on home turf in round three as they brushed aside injury-ravaged Scotland 27-10 in a game in which they scored four tries and had a further quartet of scores chalked off.
After talk of mutiny and questions over team selection, they unquestionably benefited from a more natural balance in the backline and with Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack pulling the strings.
Team news and line-ups
Cian Healy, Rory Best and James Ryan all return to the Irish pack for the meeting with Les Bleus as Schmidt makes seven changes to the side that laboured against Italy.
Ireland XV: Kearney; Earls, Ringrose, Aki, Stockdale; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best, Furlong; Henderson, Ryan; O’Mahony, Van der Flier, Stander
Replacements: Scannell, Kilcoyne, Ryan, Dillane, Conan, Cooney, Carty, Larmour
For the second match in succession, France have opted to name their team well in advance of the deadline.
And, in a very rare act of contentment and consistency that speaks to their improvement against Scotland, Jacques Brunel has selected a completely unchanged 23, with Dupont and Ntamack again selected together at half-back and the impressive Thomas Ramos continuing at full-back.
France XV: Ramos; Penaud, Bastareaud, Fickou, Huget; Ntamack, Dupont; Poirot, Guirado (c), Bamba; Lambey, Vahaamahina; Lauret, Iturria, Picamoles
Replacements: Chat, Falgoux, Aldegheri, Willemse, Alldritt, Serin, Belleau, Medard
Score prediction: Ireland 28-14 France
Ireland have appeared far from their best during the opening three rounds and with a tough trip to unbeaten Grand Slam chasers Wales to come, need to put in an impressive performance to ease some of the mounting concerns ahead of the World Cup.
France, meanwhile, produced some old-fashioned flair against Scotland, but remain a wholly inconsistent proposition from week to week - even with an unchanged squad - and do not typically travel well.
Betting tips via Betfair | UK users only | Subject to change
Match odds
- Ireland to win: 1/7
- Draw: 30/1
- France to win: 5/1
Click here to find the latest match odds and place a bet.
TV channel and live stream, and online coverage
ITV and the BBC are sharing broadcasting rights for the Six Nations for the third successive year, with ITV hosting Ireland vs France on their main free-to-air channel and via their online ITV Hub.
You can also follow all the action with Standard Sport's LIVE blog.
Head to Head record and history (h2h)
These two teams have met on 97 previous occasions, with France having claimed 56 victories to Ireland's 34. There have been seven draws.
Les Bleus were generally dominant in this fixture until 2012, when successive draws were followed by five wins in six meetings for the Irish.
Last year, a long-range drop-goal from Johnny Sexton gave Ireland a thrilling 15-13 win at the Stade de France.
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