Ireland beat France 24-9 in World Cup crunch match

Following a gritty 16-9 win over Italy, having easily beaten Canada (50-5) and Romania (44-10), Ireland face a must-win game against the similarly unbeaten French.

The front row trio of Cian Healy, Rory Best and Mike Ross line up together for the 30th time, an global first in the professional era and an all-time first for a northern hemisphere side.

Keith Earls, who will start in the centre alongside Robbie Henshaw in the crunch game against France tomorrow, is the most likely candidate to fill the 13 jersey for the remainder of Ireland’s involvement in the competition.

Replacements: 16-Richardt Strauss, 17-Jack McGrath, 18-Nathan White, 19-Iain Henderson, 20-Chris Henry, 21-Eoin Reddan, 22-Ian Madigan 23-Luke Fitzgerald.

France’s Pascal Pape fell to the ground in a heap in the early stages of the game, after what replays suggested may have been a deliberate punch from Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien.

“We’ve put everything into this week and we’ll do the same the week after”. There was a bit of swelling post-training on Wednesday. With the type of the game that is (the quarter-final), we want to have a fully-fit squad for that.

Schmidt said it was a “really tight call” to omit Henderson for Toner. “A big thing for us is about being Irish and that helped build it”, he added.

So much talk this week has been about French players “hunting down” Jonathan Sexton, but Frédéric Michalak has quietly been a revelation at this World Cup, prodding and probing and getting his backs involved.

Thierry Dusautoir will captain les Bleus for the 55th time, joining Australian legend John Eales in seventh place on the all-time list.

Ireland say they will not make a decision on a replacement for Payne until after Sunday’s crucial match.

Scott Spedding and Noa Nakaitaci join Dulin in the back three while Wesley Fofana and Mathieu Bastareaud are paired in the centres. The world record is held by Gethin Jenkins, who has played 123 tests for Wales and the British & Irish Lions.

Former All Blacks coach picks Group of Death winners to face Ireland in semifinal.

That will have no bearing on France’s mindset when they take on the Six Nations champions under the closed roof at the Millennium Stadium. It is all on their shoulders. They had responded impressively to losing Sexton and even more so now.

“It’s important to be disciplined. Application, determination and concentration will determine the outcome of this match”.

Ireland would also lose Peter O’Mahony, who had a towering match, clearing out, poaching, tackling and counter-rucking.

“So we had no football going into that French game in 2007”.

“We have to come up with an accurate gameplan”, he said.

“We know where France are going to be in terms of their physicality. They’ve got it together, they’ve got a good culture”. Should he produce a performance befitting of his talents, like he has in four of his previous five outings, he is going to suck Irish defenders into the tackle area, which will create space in the wider channels for the French backs. They won’t beat the French again for six years.

“So versatility is a huge positive for us”. We are not favourites, and we can’t afford any mistakes. Ireland has a strong wind behind it, and David Humphreys kicks three penalties, while Francois Gelez lands one, the wind kills two, and a dropped goal hits the crossbar. He’ll tell you exactly what to do in one short sentence.