Ireland team: Andy Farrell makes big calls for Six Nations opener against France

Big Joe in from the start, and Robbie Henshaw returns.

Andy Farrell has named his Ireland team to face France, on Wednesday afternoon, for the Six Nations opener, at Stade Velodrome, on Friday evening. With Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls retired, and some big names injured, there were inevitable changes from the last Ireland team to play, at the World Cup quarter final.

IRELAND TEAM

15. Hugo Keenan
14. Calvin Nash
13. Robbie Henshaw
12. Bundee Aki
11. James Lowe
10. Jack Crowley
9. Jamison Gibson-Park
1. Andrew Porter
2. Dan Sheehan
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Tadhg Beirne
5. Joe McCarthy
6. Peter O’Mahony (captain)
7. Josh van der Flier
8. Caelan Doris

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Finlay Bealham, James Ryan, Ryan Baird, Jack Conan, Conor Murray, Ciarán Frawley.

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New challenges await this Ireland team

Heading into the opener against France, at the Six Nations launch, Andy Farrell was asked what success would look like for this Ireland team.

“We all know that winning a Six Nations is very hard to do because of the standard of the teams what we’ve got in the competition continues to grow and that’s why we all love it,” he replied.

“What does success look like? We want to win every game and winning matters. I’ve never been one from shying away from that. I’ll say the same. But we’re realists and we know that it’s difficult. I suppose every team in the competition,  as we stand today, would love to be in with a shout on the last weekend to be able to go on and win that.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of water that gets put under the bridge. You’ve got to roll with the punches especially in the Six Nations because it changes the whole time and that’s why we love it. It’s about getting ourselves to be in with a shout, however that may look on the final weekend. That has to be what we’re aiming for.”

On the ‘Johnny Sexton void’, as one reporter put it, Farrell replied, “There will be a void, obviously, but it’s their… I’ve got my first meeting at 4.30 or whatever and after that people start filling it straight away and making sure that they fully understand what we’re about. That it’s their team and it’s not just the coaches trying to tell them what to do. It’s their team.

“Of course they’ve got experience of that and they understand what that looks like, but some responsibilities might be a little bit different as in trying to take that gap and going, ‘You know what? I’m going to put myself out there whether it be a certain position or the social committee or the leadership committee or whatever’.”

JAMES DOWNEY & LINDSAY PEAT ON HOUSE OF RUGBY

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