JAMISON BLEUS SO MURRAY PLAYS

MICHAEL SCULLY

BY

CONOR MURRAY will continue at scrum-half and Finlay Bealham at tighthead for Ireland as Andy Farrell was forced to rule out two regulars early in France week.

Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson-park (inset) and Cian Healy are out of Ireland’s second round Six Nations clash at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

Connacht scrum-half Caolin Blade, who was capped against the USA 18 months ago, and Leinster’s young loosehead Michael Milne, who recently made his Champions Cup debut for the province and was part of the Emerging Ireland set-up, were drafted into the camp as cover as preparations got under way for the clash with Les Bleus.

Due to hamstring issues, both scrum-half Gibsonpark and loosehead Healy withdrew from the matchday squad just hours before kick-off against

Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

Gibson-park was replaced in the starting line-up by Murray (far right), who played well at short notice as he made his 101st Ireland appearance, and

Craig Casey was promoted to the bench and came on for the last 15 minutes.

Dave Kilcoyne was parachuted onto the bench in place of Healy and he closed out the 34-10 victory at loosehead after Andrew Porter came off in the 74th minute.

Furlong, meanwhile, was deemed not ready to return from a calf injury and wasn’t picked for last week’s matchday squad, with Bealham performing well on his first Six Nations start and Tom O’toole coming off the bench.

Skipper Johnny Sexton completed the HIA process yesterday after he was assessed on Saturday as a precaution and will recover from a dead leg in time having missed last year’s Ireland loss in Paris.

Hooker Rónan Kelleher will resume training this week after missing the Wales game, but is unlikely to be involved until the trip to Italy in two weeks’ time.

Tighthead Roman Salanoa and hooker Tom Stewart, who were called in last week, will remain with the squad.