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| - Billy Burns is "big and bold enough" to cope with the pressure of replacing Johnny Sexton at fly-half for Ireland's Six Nations clash with favourites France on Sunday, says prop Cian Healy. English-born Burns will make only his second start for the hosts in his fifth Test after captain Sexton failed to recover from a knock to the head he suffered in last Sunday's 21-16 defeat in Wales. Burns's selection is a massive vote of confidence in the Ulster playmaker after his failure to find touch off a penalty in the dying seconds of the loss in Cardiff. Burns will be partnered at half-back by Healy's Leinster team-mate Jamison Gibson-Park after Sexton's long-time partner Conor Murray strained a hamstring. It is the first time since March 2011 that neither one of Sexton nor Murray has appeared in a Six Nations match -- the same year Les Bleus last won a championship match in Dublin. Along with winger Keith Earls, Healy is one of two remaining players from that game and on Sunday he will become his country's most capped prop with 106, breaking John Hayes's record. The old campaigner gave a withering response as to whether he had been counselling 26-year-old Burns. "No, I'm not keeping an eye on him," he told reporters on Friday. "He's big and bold enough to be able to deal with it. He's a good enough rugby player to understand that. "He doesn't tell me how to scrum and I don't tell him how to kick." Healy said it is disrespectful to the player to start handing out advice. "You're not worried about people, you're not trying to help people into their position," he said. "Everyone is ready to be in here, they're here because they're good enough to be here. We're dealing with what we have and I think we're in a great place." Healy admitted he was shocked to learn his provincial team-mate Rhys Ruddock would be making his first Six Nations start despite making his Test debut over a decade ago. Ruddock, 29, gets a chance due to Peter O'Mahony's suspension following his red card at the Principality Stadium. "Rhys is like he's what you would consider the ice hockey enforcer," said Healy. "He's a physical brute that is going to put his head places that most won't. He's going to be an asset to a team." Healy's achievement in making history on Sunday -- he will also become Ireland's fifth-most capped player -- looked unlikely at times. A serious neck injury in 2015 came close to ending his career. Healy, described by Sexton as "a bit of a freak of an athlete", has recently become a father to a son, Beau. However, he has not seen too much of him having been in camp. "I won't be feeling myself too sorry not being able to go home because there's lads like Johnny (Sexton) and Pete (O'Mahony) who have a couple of kids and can't get back to them," said Healy. "We're in here because we want to be in here, not because we have to be here. It's more of an honour than a plague." pi/iwd/mw
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