Ireland coach Declan Kidney has dropped wing Andrew Trimble from the Six Nations grand slam champions' starting side to play France in Paris this weekend and brought in Keith Earls.

That switch on the left wing was the only confirmed change to the starting side announced by Kidney on Tuesday from the Ireland team that ran on for last weekend's 29-11 tournament opening win over Italy at Dublin's Croke Park.

But Kidney is still waiting on the fitness of flanker Stephen Ferris who missed the Italy match with a knee injury.

The coach has left a space on the blindside which he hopes to fill on Thursday when he is also due to finalise his bench after naming nine replacements - a team can only have a maximum of seven - on Tuesday.

Among the replacements was fly-half Jonathan Sexton who missed the Italy match with a dead leg after kicking all of Ireland's points in their 15-10 win over world champions South Africa in November.

Ronan O'Gara, Ireland's record points scorer, retained the No 10 shirt after landing two conversions and four penalties against Italy.

However, lock Donncha O'Callaghan has not recovered from the left knee injury that saw him ruled out of the Azzurri opener so Leinster's European Cup winning captain Leo Cullen will continue alongside British and Irish Lions skipper Paul O'Connell in the second row against France on Saturday.

Ireland face a France side who began this Six Nations with an 18-9 victory away to Scotland last weekend.

With both sides off to winning starts, Saturday's Stade de France clash is already being billed as a potential title-decider.

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