Ireland's Sexton starts for "massive challenge" against England

DUBLIN : Ireland captain Johnny Sexton was among the players to return to the starting lineup to face England at the weekend when coach Andy Farrell named his team on Thursday as both sides aim to keep their chances of a Six Nations title alive.

Sexton, who announced this week that he will retire after next year's World Cup, missed Ireland's only loss of the tournament so far to France through injury and returned as a replacement in the 57-6 thrashing of Italy last time out.

Ireland trail France by three points while England, the only other team with two victories, are four points behind the leaders .

"It's a massive challenge for us this weekend," Ireland Farrell told a news conference ahead of Satruday's match. "We've got to prove to ourselves that there's a performance in there from us that's a step above what we've shown already."

Farrell opted to restore Bundee Aki to the midfield ahead of Robbie Henshaw, who he said was still suffering from a lack of game time. Andrew Conway and Hugo Keenan return to the back three alongside James Lowe who is retained from the Italy game.

With injured prop Andrew Porter joining fellow front rower Ronan Kelleher on the sidelines for the rest of the tournament, Cian Healy will start his first game of this year's Six Nations to win his 115th cap.

Farrell also praised Peter O'Mahony's form and leadership qualities after he retained his place in the backrow ahead of Jack Conan, who is among the replacements again after the starting the first two games.

"It's always difficult when you've got a good squad, some tough decisions, but we feel the balance of the team is good one... And obviously you look at our bench, we've got an experienced bench and an explosive bench," Farrell said.

Ireland team: