The meeting with Les Bleues at Kingspan Stadium (1pm start) offers Ireland an opportunity to launch the high-profile campaign in front of home fans. Jones – who is on the books of English club side Gloucester-Hartpury – is joined in the Ireland starting line-up by Ulster’s Brittany Hogan. Ulster’s Fiona Tuite – a club colleage of Hogan’s at Old Belvedere – is named as a replacement. "We are really excited to get our 2025 season underway in front of our home crowd in Belfast this Saturday,” said Ireland head coach Scott Bemand on the official Irish Rugby website. “And no better challenge to start with than the visit of a very talented France side. "We have had a strong block of preparation leading into the Championship and the intensity of training and competition for places within the matchday squad has driven standards in camp. "Building on from our WXV1 campaign last autumn, we're now focused on producing a performance this Saturday and showcasing further growth and evolution in our game at the start of a very exciting year for Irish Rugby." Old Belvedere’s Linda Djougang highlighted the importance of ‘belief’ within the Ireland panel. "I think that the massive thing has been belief,” said the Leinster representative on the official Irish Rugby website. “It was belief in Vancouver (when we finished second in WXV1) and that's what we really spoke about, our belief. "We definitely wanted to get to that level of France and England, and I think that we're definitely moving in the right direction from last year, qualifying for the World Cup and coming third in the Six Nations. "We've done that before so now we don't want to settle there because we know that we're better than that. "I think that we definitely want to step it up and the big competition for us starting this Saturday with France, to kind of prove that. "It's going to be a big game, but we've done our preparation and we're ready for it." IRELAND: Stacey Flood (Railway Union RFC); Anna McGann (Railway Union RFC), Aoife Dalton (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Eve Higgins (Railway Union RFC), Amee-Leigh Costigan (Railway Union RFC/Munster) (capt); Dannah O'Brien (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Emily Lane (Blackrock College RFC); Niamh O'Dowd (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Neve Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), Linda Djougang (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Ruth Campbell (Old Belvedere RFC/Leinster), Dorothy Wall (Exeter Chiefs/Munster), Brittany Hogan (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Erin King (Old Belvedere RFC), Aoife Wafer (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster). Replacements: Clíodhna Moloney (Exeter Chiefs), Siobhán McCarthy (Railway Union RFC/Munster), Christy Haney (Blackrock College RFC/Leinster), Grace Moore (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby), Fiona Tuite (Old Belvedere RFC/Ulster), Edel McMahon (Exeter Chiefs/Connacht), Aoibheann Reilly (Blackrock College RFC/Connacht), Enya Breen (Blackrock College RFC/Munster).