#360Fans: Ireland-France 6 Nations preview

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  • Rising high: Locks Pascal Pape and Paul O'Connell will battle for line-out possession to give their team the upper hand.

    Ahead of the Aviva Stadium clash on Saturday, which sees both Ireland and France attempt to maintain their unbeaten start in the Six Nations, Jordan Egan from Dubai Exiles joins us to highlight why Ireland have their best chance of winning this potential championship decider.

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    "I think if you look at the team, it is one of the strongest teams Ireland have seen for a while," said Egan.

    "(Jamie) Heaslip is back in the team, (Sean) O'Brien and (Jonny) Sexton are back. I think it is just a huge boost to have Cian Healy on the bench.

    "France is never going to be easy as Ireland don't have the best record against them over the last six years but with such a strong team this is going to be a very exciting game.

    "I think it will be a tough game but 'm going to go Ireland again and I think they will win by five points."

    Etienne Masson from Dubai Sharks predicts a game fought at close-quarters and predicts who the players to look out for will be.

    "The only thing for us to remember (against Scotland) was the win. We need to get confidence back which is clearly lacking at the moment," said Masson.

    "I hope it is going to be an open game. I doubt it as I think it will be quite a tough, quite a close one.

    "The thing I am really looking forward to is the battle in the centre. Two strong, new centres are playing for Ireland, one they describe as probably the successor to Brian O'Driscoll.

    "For France we have now two quite well established centres in [Mathieu] Basteraud and [Wesley] Fofana. Let's see how [Robbie Henshaw] can resist Basteraud at full speed, at full power.

    "My heart would say France [will win], if I listen to logic I would probably say Ireland."

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