Valbon, who himself had been an injury replacement for first-choice centre Damien Traille, has suffered a torn thigh muscle and will have to sit out the match at Lansdowne Road.

Baby, 26, had initially been named on the bench by coach Bernard Laporte having received his first-ever call into the French squad on Sunday when Traille was forced to pull out with an ankle injury.

Perpignans 22-year-old David Marty will now take Babys place among the replacements.
France team manager Jo Maso said: We are sticking to our strategy of trying to bring in the maximum number of young players to boost the squad.

Laporte will be hoping he wont have to make any other last-minute changes, especially with prop Sylvain Marconnet and replacement hooker William Servat getting the all-clear following medical tests at La Clinique des Sports in Paris.

Although they are still the defending RBS 6 Nations champions, France go into the Ireland match as underdogs having flattered to deceive in their first three matches.

Les Bleus were less than convincing in beating Scotland 16-9 at home in their opening game before edging to an 18-17 win over England at Twickenham in their next outing.
France were undone in their third match though, losing 24-18 to Wales in Paris, to wreck their hopes of recording back-to-back Grand Slams.

Laportes troops are determined to return to winning ways as soon as possible and while Ireland may be sitting pretty at the top of the standings with three successive victories, the French are confident about their chances in Dublin.

Toulouse winger Cedric Heymans, who along with Valbon had been the only change to the team that lost to Wales when Laporte announced his original side on Tuesday, said: It is possible to create a surprise. Why not? If nobody believes we can win, we are better off staying at home.

We have 80 minutes to play against a great team. I think we can be better than we were against Wales.