Ireland vs France LIVE rugby: Six Nations 2023 score and result as Ireland win Dublin thriller

We touched on it earlier in the build-up, but Wayne Barnes will have a vital role in shaping this contest. I think France were very surprised about the way that Matthew Carley officiated the breakdown last week, and adjusting to how referees are going to view the ruck area will be key. Ireland’s latchers were uber effective in providing quick, clean ball in the first half-hour last week.

It’s a quietly big afternoon for Romain Ntamack, too. The fly-half is an odd case, a consistent performer in a very good side without, perhaps, playing a starring role too often. In Matthieu Jalibert, Fabien Galthie has an alternative of supreme excellence and elegance - Ntamack’s hold on the starting shirt feels secure for now, but there are some in France who would like to see a performance of total class and command.

It is easy to forget, though, that the Toulouse playmaker is only 23 - however good this French team is, the age-profile is very young for a team competing to be the best in the world.

One extra thing to monitor this afternoon - Johnny Sexton needs 15 points to surpass Ronan O’Gara as the highest points scorer in the Six Nations. Joey Carbery had a good game in Paris last year, on the whole, but there is little doubt that a fit and available Sexton makes such a difference for this Irish side.

It now feels like we have a degree of distance from the dark days of behind-closed-doors Six Nations clashes, but this is France fans’ first chance to travel to Dublin for four years - and it would appear the travelling support are out en masse. There are even a few foolish souls (rather optimistically) seeking last-minute tickets on Landsdowne Road.

McCloskey, meanwhile, fit in well to Ireland’s patterns last weekend in a long-awaited second Six Nations chance, and spoke nicely this week about how he was perhaps guilty of “over-thinking” his game a bit during his first run in the Irish side under Joe Schmidt.

"I think I just know the game better now than I did when I was 23, 24,” the Ulster centre explained. “I feel I have a pretty good understanding of how Andy wants us to play the game.

"I understand where I need to be and how to help the rest of the team. It’s not just about how I’m playing. It’s about how I get everybody else involved in the game.

“Obviously I can still carry and I can still off-load but hopefully some of the passing game and some of the kicking game has shone through in the last two or three years, not just for Ireland but for my club."

As Andy Farrell discussed on Thursday, depth becomes all the more important in a World Cup year so it is not necessarily a bad thing for both sides to be looking at some of their second-choice options in a crunch game. Come the tournament in France it will be, we can be almost certain, Robbie Henshaw and Jonathan Danty fulfilling duties at inside centre but for now it’s up to Stuart McCloskey and Yoram Moefana to fill in.

Quietly, centre is not a position where France are blessed with proven, experienced options with Virimi Vakatawa’s enforced retirement due to health issues an unexpected blow. There’s plenty to like about Moefana, though, an eager offloader with lovely feet, enough size to make dents and the youth to further sculpt a game already looking nicely rounded. He will interchange in game with Gael Fickou, with both comfortable in either centre channel or pushing wider when the situation demands.

Julien Marchand bore the brunt of France’s breakdown woes last week, with referee Matthew Carley’s punishing French attempts to contest the ball harshly in an oddly ill-disciplined outing for the visitors in Rome. Shaun Edwards admitted in his column for the Daily Mail this week that his side should have adjusted quicker to Carley’s interpretation of the breakdown contests.

France don’t pick a traditional seven scavenger but have jackal threats throughout their 23, with Marchand among their finest operators. Expect a slightly more selective approach – Wayne Barnes, another English referee, tends to be a tad less punitive than compatriot Carley, and will allow the game to flow. France know they’ll need to stall Ireland’s attack in a way that Wales failed to in the first half last week.

For Marchand’s opposite number, this is a major test. Rob Herring has been a valuable depth piece for Ireland for close to a decade, a solid option who has never let his team down. Ireland lose a load of dynamism with Dan Sheehan absent, but that isn’t Herring’s game, so the key for the 32-year-old will be to add value in the areas in which he excels – the set piece particularly.

The showing against Italy might have prompted other coaches into changes but Fabien Galthie doesn’t strike as the panicking type, and France are, of course, on a 14-match unbeaten run – the head coach has faith in his starting side to go again.

Gabin Villiere’s return to camp last week was brief, the wing having undergone surgery on a shin injury, which means the number 11 shirt may be Ethan Dumortier’s to occupy for the remainder of the tournament after a try-scoring debut last week.

There are changes on the bench. Francois Cros adds some extra back row cover in the place of lock Thomas Lavault, and Baptiste Couilloud returns as Antoine Dupont’s understudy. Nolan Le Garrec, like Lavault, did not feature against Italy and drops out.

France XV: Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand, Uini Atonio; Thibaud Flament, Paul Willemse, Anthony Jelonch, Charles Ollivon, Gregory Alldritt; Antoine Dupont (capt.), Romain Ntamack; Ethan Dumortier, Yoram Moefana, Gael Fickou, Damian Penaud; Thomas Ramos.

Replacements: Gaetan Barlot, Reda Wardi, Sipili Falatea, Romain Taofifenua, Francois Cros, Sekou Macalou; Baptiste Couilloud, Matthieu Jalibert.

Another week, another major injury blow for Ireland with Dan Sheehan scratched from the side that started against Wales. With Sheehan out, Ronan Kelleher’s return to fitness is timely, though Rob Herring gets the nod as starting hooker.

Andy Farrell was able to take the positives, though: “It’s not nice for Dan, a fantastic player at the top of his form. Anyone would miss a player in that kind of form.

“I sound like a broken record, but it’s great because this is exactly what’s going to happen down the track in the World Cup. International rugby is only going to get bigger and better so it’s always going to be about the squad.”

Elsewhere, the squad is as it was, with Johnny Sexton shaking off a dead leg having missed the encounter between these two sides last year with a hamstring injury, pleasingly partnered by Conor Murray despite that worrying midweek news.

Ireland XV: Andrew Porter, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong; Tadhg Beirne, James Ryan; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris; Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton (capt.); James Lowe, Stuart McCloskey, Mack Hansen; Hugo Keenan.

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson, Jack Conan; Craig Casey, Ross Byrne, Bundee Aki.

Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray is in “good form” and ready to face France in the Six Nations today, despite his father suffering “serious injuries” in a road traffic collision.

Murray emerged as potential doubt for the weekend match on Wednesday evening but was named in his country’s starting XV the following afternoon.

Head coach Andy Farrell opted against going into specific details about the player’s personal issue on Thursday before news broke of his dad Gerry being treated in hospital after he collided with a truck while cycling in County Limerick.