Six Nations/France v Ireland:With three changes in personnel and three more positional ones, the net result for Ireland is an infusion of freshness and ball-carrying up front, featuring players in form and playing in position for Saturday's imposing encounter with a rejuvenated France in Paris.

After Eddie O'Sullivan's Road to Damascus-like conversion to the notion of impact replacements last Saturday, whether it's in the nick of time remains to be seen.

As expected, Jamie Heaslip comes into the backrow for Simon Easterby, with Denis Leamy reverting to blindside, and Andrew Trimble starts in midfield alongside Brian O'Driscoll in place of the injured Gordon D'Arcy, with Rob Kearney starting on the left wing.

A tad more surprisingly, Bernard Jackman is the third Leinster player granted his first start in the Six Nations, with Rory Best joining Easterby on the bench, where Shane Horgan is called up.

More of a form selection, by rights this should arguably have been much closer to the selection against Italy. That was presented as a form pick a week ago by the coach, though few bought that and yesterday he appeared to backtrack a little.

"The team I picked last week was the first game of the championship, so I went in with a view that I wanted things pretty rock solid, I didn't want to put in guys who had never been there before and might find the whole occasion a bit of a leap. The lads who came off the bench did well and this week in Paris it's good to give them a shot. The pressure is on them now to deliver that form from their provinces that got them into the frame."

That said he had a valid point in speculating that the greater ball carrying came with "a possible trade-off at the lineout. Part of my thinking last week was that I wanted a solid setpiece against Italy. I didn't want any heebie-jeebies going on at the setpiece. With a game under our belts I'm comfortable that Jamie and Bernard will fit into the lineout and they do offer some dynamics around the field."

Nevertheless, it was also striking to note that Ireland's best maul of the game against Italy by some distance was while this exact forward combination was on the field.

Omitting the captains of Ulster and Llanelli entails a further trade-off, for despite the welter of caps (324) among the forwards, there is no obvious pack leader.

This remains one of the riddles of modern-day professional rugby in Ireland, namely the lack of captaincy/leadership material, which seems to be inextricably linked to the declining standards and importance of the club game.

In starting with the backline that finished against Italy, there are three fullbacks as such in the outside three, although Rob Kearney has played more than half his rugby this season on the left wing. O'Sullivan explained that despite Tommy Bowe's very good performance in the A match, there were no grounds for dropping Kearney or Murphy. Yet there remains a strong argument for utilising Murphy's strike running and distribution from fullback, with the in-form Bowe on the right wing.

As it is, Murphy remains the one slight doubt for Saturday because of a "cornea abrasion which has proved to be quite uncomfortable. Geordan is seeing an eye specialist this afternoon. The expectation is that he will be fine but he didn't run out today because of that."

Nor had he any concerns about the Trimble-O'Driscoll axis in midfield even though both are ostensibly outside centres. Trimble having moved in there after 23 minutes against Italy, the two centres swapped positions off set ball until the interval, and thereafter Trimble mostly played inside, exclusively so on defence. This makes best use of O'Driscoll's brilliant defensive reading from the more important outside channel.

"Training will be important this week, particularly from a defensive point of view," conceded the captain yesterday.

After 30-plus games in midfield together with D'Arcy for Ireland and four seasons together with Leinster, O'Driscoll admitted: "at times we didn't need to talk, there was an element of telepathy."

While O'Driscoll responded to questions about the IRFU's suggested employment of a backs coach by saying new ideas are invariably welcome, O'Sullivan was a little awkward and defensive when the same question was put to him.

"We will bring a backs coach in but I don't think it's a problem at the moment. I think the backs actually played well last week. We created plenty of opportunities but just didn't take them. No, I don't think it's an issue at the moment," he said, before adding it "will be a forward step in that it will be a fresh mind and a fresh look on things."

Marc Lièvremont will unveil his hand today amid speculation in France he might start Nicolas Mas at loosehead prop and recall Julien Bonnaire in the back row to counter Ireland's lineout. However, Easterby having been demoted, that need would not seem so acute now.

With a doubt surrounding Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (ankle), were the Toulouse scrum-half ruled out it is unlikely Lièvremont would pair the 19-year-old Morgan Parra with the 21-year-old François Trinh-Duc, and so therefore he may start David Skrela at outhalf.

There is even talk of Aurélien Rougerie being promoted, and not too many Irish tears would be spilt if that was at the expense of Vincent Clerc. But given his try in Croke Park last year and his brace in the World Cup, not to mention his bonus-point try in Toulouse against Leinster, that would probably be too good to be true.

Vermeulen out

France number eight Elvis Vermeulen has been ruled out of the match against Ireland because of a rib injury. "Elvis was injured during the game against Scotland. X-rays revealed a broken rib. He will be sidelined for four to six weeks," team spokesman Lionel Rossigneux said.

Vermeulen will be replaced in the squad by the uncapped Louis Picamoles, who received the call while celebrating his 21st birthday. Picamoles plays club rugby with Montpellier and will join team-mates Fulgence Ouedraogo and François Trinh-Duc, who won their second and first cap respectively at Murrayfield.