Crunch time.

Ireland opened their Six Nations campaign with a defeat to Wales last Sunday, making this weekend’s visit of France a crucial fixture.

The men in green will need to defeat Les Blue if they are to remain in contention for the championship, and given France’s incredible form of late – that will be no easy task.

So does Andy Farrell mix things up? Ireland may have lost on Sunday but there were lots of positives to take from the game. They were down to 14 men after just 13 minutes but very nearly came away with a famous victory in the end.

Ireland played some good rugby and it was a valiant effort, so don’t expect Farrell to change things up too much. Peter O’Mahony is out as a result of his ban so there will be once enforced change, and given his recent form, we reckon Rhys Ruddock should be the man to replace him.

Elsewhere we’d make two other changes. Firstly we’d bring Tadhg Furlong in to start given his excellent cameo off the bench. Porter was impressive but a big-game player like Furlong could make all the difference against France.

And the other change would be a straight swap between Rob Herring and Ronan Kelleher.

Proposed Ireland Team vs France.

15. Hugo Keenan
14. Keith Earls
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. James Lowe
10. Johnny Sexton
9. Conor Murray

1. Cian Healy
2. Ronan Kelleher
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Tadhg Beirne
5. James Ryan
6. Rhys Ruddock
7. Josh van der Flier
8. CJ Stander