My XV to face France in the 6 Nations
Here is the XV I would select to take on France in the Stade De France on the opening weekend of this year’s 6 Nations. It is an interesting squad that Joe Schmidt has assembled with Sean Cronin being recalled along with Fergus Mc Fadden.
The squad has been chosen to play in the opening two rounds with other players who are currently unavailable due to injury will be considered later in the campaign. As expected Simon Zebo misses out due to his move to France from next season.
Fergus Mc Fadden has benefitted from the injury suffered by Adam Byrne with his recall. Players like Craig Gilroy can count themselves unlucky not to get the call up with injury ruling him out of contention.
Connacht man Matt Healy is extremely unlucky not to get the call up for the opening two rounds but Matt Healy could still play his way into the plans of Joe Schmidt.
Jordan Larmour has earned his first senior call up after progressing through the Irish set up and his performances have been really impressive this year with Leinster and in turn Joe Schmidt has seen fit to give him a call up and now it is time for Jordan to make the most of the opportunity that has presented itself to him.
It is time for Ireland to get back to the good times of the winning Championships after the won the 2014 and 2015 Championships.
England have dominated the last two campaigns only being defeated on one occasion last season in the final game of the Championship where England were going for the Grand Slam and also trying to continue an unbeaten run but Ireland halted that run with a terrific win and since that time England have continued winning games under Eddie Jones as they continue their quest to win the 2019 World Cup.
The XV I would select to face France is :
15 Jordan Larmour
14 Keith Earls
13 Robbie Henshaw
12 Rory Scannell
11 Jacob Stockdale
10 Jonathan Sexton
9 Conor Murray
8 Jack Conan
7 Josh Van Der Flier
6 Peter O Mahony
5 James Ryan
4 Iain Henderson
3 Tadgh Furlong
2 Rory Best
1 Dave Kilcoyne
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16 Sean Cronin
17 Jack Mc Grath
18 John Ryan
19 Ultan Dillane
20 CJ Stander
21 Luke Mc Grath
22 Joey Carbery
23 Andrew Conway
By
Cian Mc Gibney
17/01/2018