Irish Rugby

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Ireland's Jack Conan has predicted the team's back row will be under a "huge amount of pressure" to fill the void left by Caelan Doris' injury when they face Wales in the Six Nations on Saturday (14:15 GMT).

Simon Easterby's side have won their opening two games of the championship against England and Scotland, but they have been forced into changes for this weekend's trip to Cardiff with captain Doris and Ronan Kelleher both ruled out.

Doris, who has played in every one of Ireland's Test matches since the 2021 Six Nations, will miss out because of a knee injury sustained in training.

"How do you fill that role? It's very difficult," said Conan.

"He's played 42 in a row which is a testament to how professional he is, how durable he is, how consistent he's been as a player.

"There'll be a huge amount of pressure on the entirety of the back row, whoever is on the bench and the lads that are starting, to keep on pushing from where he left off because he's been unbelievable."

Conan, a 2021 British and Irish Lion, has performed well off the bench in the opening two games and will fill the jersey vacated by his Leinster team-mate Doris.

"We get on very well. We compete hard against each other and I think we've spurred each other on to be at a really good level," said the 32-year-old.

"He's someone who sets the standard for the rest of the back row and without him we're going to have to push on and make sure we're at that level."

Wales will be under the charge of interim head coach Matt Sherratt for the first time, having lost their past 14 Tests, a run dating back to the 2023 World Cup.

"I've no doubt it's been unbelievably tough for the Welsh lads," said Conan.

"They'll be galvanised by a new coach coming in, everything that's gone on the last few weeks.

"They're a nation that gets behind Welsh rugby incredibly well, and playing over there with the roof closed is going to be special."

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Wales against Ireland in the Six Nations has traditionally been a battle between red and green.

But on Saturday, Ireland will swap green for white as they look to secure the Triple Crown in Cardiff.

It comes after World Rugby introduced a directive to assist supporters who are affected by colour vision deficiency (CVD) by limiting the amount of kit clashes in the sport.

It can be difficult for those who have CVD, also known as colour blindness, to differentiate between colours, including red and green.

One in 12 men and one in 200 women worldwide are colour blind.

The last time Ireland wore a white jersey was against Tonga, who played in their home red shirt, at the 2023 World Cup in France.

Ireland have defeated England and Scotland in their opening two matches and can win the Triple Crown against Wales, who are winless in 14 matches and will be led by Matt Sherratt after Warren Gatland left his role as head coach.

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Robbie Henshaw believes competition for places is helping Ireland's players get "the best out of each other" in their Six Nations campaign.

Led by interim head coach Simon Easterby, the back-to-back champions remain on course for a third title in succession after opening wins over England and Scotland and will secure the Triple Crown with victory over Wales on Saturday.

Henshaw started against Scotland after coming off the bench against England with Easterby also able to call upon Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose for his midfield spots.

The trio have rarely all been fit for the duration of the same Test window but the 31-year-old says the switches in personnel have been "seamless" so far.

"We know each others' strengths inside out at this stage," he said.

"A lot of work goes on to make sure everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet.

"Everyone is delighted to have contributed in the first games. We're always pushing the bar to keep improving each other and keep getting the best out of each other."

Ireland will be without captain Caelan Doris due to a knee injury, but Henshaw thinks the side have an able replacement in the shape of Jack Conan who excelled off the bench in the first two games.

"It's unfortunate for Caelan to be missing this week, hopefully he'll be back soon," said Henshaw.

"To have someone like Jack coming in, it goes to show the talent we have across the board in terms of the competition for places, the strength and depth.

"It's great that we have people of that talent to step in."

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Ireland will play New Zealand at Soldier Field in Chicago in November, nine years on from the historic victory which was one of Irish rugby's greatest days.

The match on 1 November is a repeat of the 2016 fixture at the same venue when Ireland ended an 111-year wait for a first men's Test win over the All Blacks.

Ireland have also played Italy at the home of the National Football League's Chicago Bears, winning 54-7 in 2018.

Ireland will play the remainder of their autumn fixtures back in Dublin starting with a visit from Japan on 8 November.

They will welcome Australia to the Aviva Stadium a week later, before finishing off the four-game slate by hosting back-to-back world champions South Africa.

"We are delighted to see international rugby return to Chicago for this historic 'rematch' between Ireland and New Zealand," said Kevin Potts, chief executive of the Irish Rugby Football Union.

"The 2016 encounter at Soldier Field is one of the greatest moments in Irish rugby history, and the rivalry that has grown between our two teams since then is a testament to the quality, passion, and the respect that Ireland and New Zealand have for each other."

The All Blacks fixture will provide a return to the Ireland coaching box for Andy Farrell after he leads the British and Irish Lions in a three-Test tour of Australia this summer.

Assistant coach Simon Easterby is currently in charge of the team for the Six Nations and will be interim head coach again for Test matches in July.

Ireland have not yet confirmed opposition or dates for those games

Saturday, 1 November: Ireland v New Zealand, Soldier Field, Chicago, 20:10 GMT

Saturday, 8 November: Ireland v Japan, Aviva Stadium, 12:40 GMT

Saturday, 15 November: Ireland v Australia, Aviva Stadium, 20:10 GMT

Saturday, 22 November: Ireland v South Africa, Aviva Stadium, 17:40 GMT.

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Ireland captain Caelan Doris, Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong have been ruled out of Saturday's Six Nations game against Wales in Cardiff (14:15 GMT).

Leinster back row Doris has picked up a knee injury, while hooker Kelleher is struggling with a neck issue.

Prop Furlong missed Ireland's wins over England and Scotland, and while the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) said he was "making good progress" on Sunday, he remains unavailable.

After facing Wales, there is another down week before Ireland host France at Aviva Stadium on 8 March.

"We're hoping they'll be available for France, they're just going through their processes they do with the physios, but they're all making good progress," said Ireland attack coach Andrew Goodman.

With Ulster's Iain Henderson and Cormac Izuchukwu also ruled out, Ireland called up six players on Sunday, including Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale and Nick Timoney.

Munster forwards Gavin Coombes and John Hodnett and Leinster back row Diarmuid Mangan were also added to interim boss Simon Easterby's panel on Sunday.

"There are some guys who have been playing well for their provinces in those positions that are ready for an opportunity, so it's exciting for them," added Goodman.

When asked who will captain Ireland against Wales in Doris' absence, Goodman said: "There's some good leaders in the squad.

"The leadership group's been growing well over the past couple of years and there's a number of players who have captained their provinces, so we have some good options there."

When pressed for the frontrunners for the captaincy, he added: "You've got guys like Peter O'Mahony and Jack Conan who have captained their provinces, Dan Sheehan, Ringer [Garry Ringrose], JR [James Ryan], Cian Prendergast - there's a number of players with leadership experience."

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Leinster's Max Deegan will captain Ireland 'A' against England 'A' at Ashton Gate in Bristol on 23 February (13:00 GMT).

Back row Deegan is one of six players - alongside forwards Fineen Wycherley, Oli Jager, Tom O'Toole and backs Harry Byrne and Shane Daly - to have been capped at Test level by Ireland.

The squad also includes 12 players who were part of the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa in September, including Ulster's Zac Ward and Jude Postlethwaite.

The 29-man panel is made up of 11 Leinster players, eight from Munster, seven from Connacht and three from Ulster.

"I am hugely excited to work with such a talented group of players and coaches and we're all looking forward to the opportunity to represent our country in Bristol this weekend," said Ireland 'A' head coach Mike Prendergast.

"It is an experienced group with a number of capped senior internationals named alongside players who have featured for Emerging Ireland and for their provinces in recent months."

Munster coach Prendergast added: "The standard, whenever you pull on an Ireland jersey, is to perform to the best of your ability and we believe that we have a good blend of talented players who will look to take this opportunity to impress the national and provincial coaches.

"Sunday's game presents a huge opportunity against what will be a well-drilled England side who boast a lot of Premiership experience in their ranks. It is a task that we will approach with a positive frame of mind."

Ireland 'A' squad

(Club/province/Test caps)

Forwards (16): Jack Aungier (Clontarf FC/Connacht), Diarmuid Barron (Garryowen/Munster), James Culhane (UCD RFC/Leinster), Max Deegan (Lansdowne/Leinster) (captain) (2), Brian Gleeson (Garryowen FC/Munster), Oli Jager (Munster) (1), Sean Jansen (Connacht), Alex Kendellen (UCC RFC/Munster), Paddy McCarthy (Dublin University FC/Leinster), Darragh Murray (Buccaneers RFC/Connacht), Evan O'Connell (UL Bohemian RFC/Munster), Conor O'Tighearnaigh (UCD RFC/Leinster), Tom O'Toole (Ballynahinch/Ulster) (16), Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley RFC/Leinster), Alex Soroka (Clontarf FC/Leinster), Fineen Wycherley (Young Munster/Munster) (1).

Backs (13): Shayne Bolton (Connacht), Harry Byrne (UCD/Leinster) (4), Hugh Cooney (Clontarf/Leinster), Shane Daly (Cork Constitution/Munster) (2), Cathal Forde (Corinthians/Connacht), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians RFC/Connacht), Fintan Gunne (Terenure College RFC/Leinster), Ben Murphy (Clontarf/Connacht), Ben O'Connor (UCC RFC/Munster), Tommy O'Brien (UCD RFC/Leinster), Andrew Osborne (Naas RFC/Leinster), Jude Postlethwaite (City of Armagh RFC/Ulster), Zac Ward (Ballynahinch RFC/Ulster).

Ireland 'A' management team

Mike Prendergast (head coach/attack coach), Jimmy Duffy (forwards), Sean O'Brien (defence), Mark Sexton (backs/assistant attack coach), Colm Tucker (scrum/breakdown).

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Ulster head coach Richie Murphy said his side are "struggling to get over the line" after their 34-19 loss to Benetton.

The province have lost seven of their 11 games in the United Rugby Championship (URC) this season and have fallen to 14th in the standings.

Their latest defeat came after they were leading 19-17 at half-time but failed to score a single point after the restart.

Central to their struggles in the second half were yellow cards for David McCann, Nick Timoney and Stewart Moore, while they had a try chalked off late on for an illegal clear-out by Tom O'Toole.

"The game got away from us in the second half and our own ill discipline cost us," said Murphy.

"Yellow cards and a try chalked off have a big bearing on the game.

"We came under a lot of pressure and unfortunately we don't have the answers at the moment."

Murphy had no complaints about his side's disallowed try, although he thought a penalty rather than yellow card would have sufficed for Timoney's high tackle.

In the final stages of the game, the head coach felt his side "became a bit individual" as they tried to turn the tide.

"Where we are at the moment, lacking in ability to get over the line, when the pressure comes on it's important we stick together and play as a team," he added.

"We went away from that and became a bit individual, trying to solve problems on our own, and ultimately that cost us the game."

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Garry Ringrose says Simon Easterby remains 'dead focused' on his role as Ireland's interim head coach amid reports he could be the next Wales boss.

The 49-year-old has guided the side to two bonus-point wins to start their Six Nations campaign with usual head coach Andy Farrell on secondment with the British and Irish Lions.

He has, however, been linked to the Wales job following confirmation of Warren Gatland's departure on Wednesday.

The former back row was a player and head coach with Scarlets and still lives in Wales, who Ireland play in Cardiff on 22 February.

"I only heard it off one of the lads but, sure, it's not a thing at all," said Ringrose of the reported interest.

"Simon is dead focused on trying to prepare as best we can and that's aligned with what the players are driving to."

Ireland's head of athletic performance Aled Walters, who worked at Scarlets when Easterby was a player, feels such "speculation" was inevitable.

"He's that good a coach that there's always going to be speculation in professional sport, that's human nature," said Walters.

"There's been a change with Wales, and the fact that he lives there, he was always going to be linked.

"That's the quality of the man. Credit to him and credit to the group, nothing has been said about it. 

"We just carry on preparing for Wales as we would normally."

Walters, who joined the Irish staff last year, has been impressed by how Easterby has taken to the head coach's role having been an assistant on the ticket for more than a decade.

"He's really brought his own flavour to things. It's been great to see," he added.

"Even in the autumn, he's a leader. It's not like he's been sat back in the shadows and all of a sudden thrust into the limelight.

"It hasn't felt that different. He's been there the whole time."

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Ulster back row David McCann believes victory over Benetton on Saturday would be 'massive' for the side heading into a crucial period of their season.

After a home defeat by Zebre last month, the province have fallen to ninth in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and have ground to make up over the final eight games of the season if they are to secure a place in the play-offs.

Benetton are two places below Richie Murphy's men in the table, although the sides are level on 23 points.

"I think we have the potential to go there and get a result that can turn around our season and give us that momentum going into the next few weeks," said McCann.

"It is massive for us. We've had a few weeks of training under our belt so it's implementing all the things we've been working on and we should get the result if we do that accurately."

Ulster have won just one of their past five league games and the loss to Zebre on 26 January was their first ever at home to the Italian side.

"We are definitely still using it as motivation for ways we have get better and not forgetting about that result on our home pitch," added McCann.

"It is good for motivation, but we have definitely taken the learnings and moved on.

"We were compounding mistakes and I think we could sense we were doing that. We should have reacted better and identified that during the game, we tried to, but we had a lot of mistakes.

"With an inexperienced team, it is about taking those learnings and being concise about changing that."

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Munster forward Tadhg Beirne and Leinster centre Garry Ringrose have signed contract extensions with the Irish Rugby Football Union [IRFU].

Beirne has penned a two-year extension until 2027 while Ringrose has signed a new deal until 2028.

Beirne made his Test debut in 2018 and has earned 58 caps, playing a key role in Ireland's back-to-back Six Nations title wins in 2023 and 2024.

The 33-year-old played every minute of the autumn Tests in November and started Ireland's opening Six Nations wins over England and Scotland this year.

Beirne was one of four Ireland players named in the World Rugby men's XVs dream team of the year for 2024 and was named Munster captain before the start of the season.

"It is a source of great pride to represent Ireland and Munster and I am delighted to continue to do so for the foreseeable future," said Beirne, who can play in the second or back rows.

"Playing in Ireland is a dream come true and I believe that Irish rugby is in a strong place with competitive environments across all of the provinces continuing to drive the highest levels of competition at national team level.

"I am hugely excited about the future and will do my best to hopefully deliver for our amazing supporters over the coming seasons."

Ringrose, 30, has won 65 Tests caps since making his debut in November 2016.

He has won two Grand Slams with Ireland and a Champions Cup with Leinster.

"I am delighted to extend my stay in Ireland with Leinster and I'm hugely excited about the future of Irish Rugby," said Ringrose.

"Since making my debut I have relished the opportunity to play for my home club and it was an easy decision to commit for the next three years.

"With some huge Tests coming down the line at club and international level, I believe that there are bright days to come and I look forward to playing my part as we drive forward towards hopefully even more success."

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Ireland wing Calvin Nash believes competition for places has been key to the side's strong start to the Six Nations.

Simon Easterby's side are top of the table with 10 points from 10 available after bonus-point wins over England and Scotland.

The Munster man scored his third Test try in Murrayfield as Ireland secured a 32-18 victory on Sunday.

He had sat out the win over England in round one of this year's competition, but came into the starting side to play Scotland after Mack Hansen was ruled out through injury.

The 27-year-old started every game of the championship last season, as well as both summer Tests in South Africa, but did not play a minute of four games in November.

"Being out of the squad is tough, especially when you're close and training the whole time with them," he said.

"Probably the start of the Six Nations as well, I wanted to put my best foot forward and try to get in and obviously there's a bit more disappointment not getting selected.

"But I think with this team, as long as the competition is pushing everyone forward and the team is going in the right direction, I can slot in or anyone can slot in. It's probably a good sign of the squad."

Nash scored twice in his province's Investec Champions Cup win before the Six Nations and was "confident" he could make an impact against Scotland despite only learning he would start late in the week.

"It's not my first game with the lads and the only thing you have to be over, really, is the moves. Other than that it's just about playing rugby in the system, you just slot in," he added.

"We all know the moves and that's your job. At the end of the day I knew I was travelling and if there was one injury I could have been in, so it's my job to just know everything and slot in.

"I've been confident in my ability being on the pitch, and I suppose the lead up to this camp has given me massive confidence as well. I've just been backing myself a bit more."

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Willie Faloon and Mark Sexton will join the Ulster Rugby coaching staff for the 2025-26 campaign.

Both men previously worked with head coach Richie Murphy during his spell with the Ireland Under-20s.

Sexton, brother of former Ireland fly-half Johnny, has worked as Connacht's attack coach for the past two seasons, and was skills and assistant attack coach to Murphy for back-to-back underage Six Nations Grand Slams.

Faloon, the former flanker who made 67 appearances for the province as a player, has already been assisting Murphy with the defence after the mid-season departure of Jonny Bell having previously coached the Irish Under-20s and in the Ulster academy.

It had previously been confirmed that assistant coach Dan Soper will have a new title of development and transition coach next season, and Jimmy Duffy will continue to serve as forwards coach.

"Knowing Mark from our time together in the Irish under-20 setup, I could see first-hand that he is a talented young coach who knows how to drive an attack," said Murphy.

"He has built up a great reputation at Connacht and we are getting a hungry coach who is excited to work with the talent we have here.

"Willie Faloon is also a very talented coach with a growing reputation in the game. He's a good example of someone coming up through the Ulster coaching pathway and we look forward to seeing what impact he can make on the team."

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Ireland prop Finlay Bealham has predicted Wales will "be coming out firing" when the sides meet in round three of the Six Nations at the Principality Stadium on 22 February.

The hosts are bottom of the table with only one losing bonus point to show for defeats by France and Italy, and on Tuesday replaced head coach Warren Gatland with Cardiff's Matt Sherratt for the remainder of the championship.

Ireland are chasing a third consecutive Six Nations crown and, having already beaten England and Scotland, would secure the Triple Crown with victory in Cardiff.

"It's another away game in a really prestigious stadium," said Bealham before news of Gatland's departure.

"It's Wales' first game at home as well, so they'll be well up for it, backs against the wall. I've no doubt they'll be coming out firing.

"We'll go in with the utmost respect and do our thing."

Ireland could become the first side to win three outright Six Nations titles in a row and are targeting what would be their fifth Grand Slam.

Bealham said Ireland cannot focus on the prospect of making history.

"It's there in the background but I suppose we just stay pretty consistent in our process, take it day by day," he added.

"We've three more games and it would be silly to look too far in the future. We take it just one game at a time and try to put our best foot forward."