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21st Feb 2017

Huge fitness boost surrounding two of Ireland’s most experienced players

All guns blazing

Sean McMahon

This is great news ahead of Ireland’s pivotal clash with France.

Ireland face France this weekend in their third match of this year’s Six Nations championship with Ireland knowing that a win is necessary to keep their championship winning ambitions alive.

Now it seems that the likelihood of coming away with a win has increased thanks to the latest news coming out of Carton House.

Ireland’s experienced Leinster duo, Jonathan Sexton and Rob Kearney, both trained fully today and look set to be available for selection at the weekend.

For Sexton, it was his first full training session and there were doubts surrounding whether he would come through it unscathed, especially considering how he had pulled up with an injury during a running session in the build up to the Scotland game.

Now that the two are both in contention for the Aviva Stadium clash, it poses a selection headache for Joe Schmidt as he now has to decide whether to throw Sexton straight back into the action or remain with Paddy Jackson.

The back three positions are also difficult to determine.

The Keith Earls, Kearney, Simon Zebo trio have performed well so far, but with Andrew Trimble now making a return, it will be interesting to see who Schmidt goes with.

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