Irish Rugby

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Fly-half Beauden Barrett and hooker Codie Taylor have been ruled out of New Zealand's game with Ireland at Aviva Stadium on Friday with injuries sustained against England.

Both players failed head injury assessments [HIAs] in their side's 27-22 win in London on Saturday.

Hooker Brodie McAlister, number 10 Harry Plummer and fullback Ruben Love all remained in Ireland after beating Munster as part of an All Black XV on Saturday and have now joined up with Scott Robertson's squad.

Loose forward Christian Lio-Willie has remained with the panel as cover, although Hurricanes centre Billy Proctor has returned home on paternity leave.

Barrett's absence will likely mean a return to the starting side for Damien McKenzie, while Asafo Aumua played 75 minutes from the bench against England in place of Taylor.

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Ireland assistant coach Andrew Goodman is looking forward to renewing old acquaintances when his side welcome New Zealand to the Aviva Stadium on Friday.

Andy Farrell's attack specialist, who will be marking his first game on the Ireland coaching ticket after replacing Mike Catt this season, won a Super Rugby title with Crusaders in 2022 while on the staff of current All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson.

"Razor [Robertson] was a big mentor to me," said Goodman.

"He gave me my opportunity at the Crusaders and he’s someone I learned a great deal off, so I’ve got huge respect for Razor and all of his coaching group. I’ve worked alongside all of them.

"It's going to be great to go to battle with them."

While Goodman has plenty of knowledge of how Robertson operates, as well as the All Blacks' healthy Crusaders playing contingent, the former Leinster coach does not feel it will be a significant advantage come Friday.

"Obviously it works both ways, they know me well also.

"There’s little things you’ll look to maybe think about how they might do different areas of the game or what they might bring, but it's Test rugby, it’s a different level to what we were playing in Super Rugby in New Zealand.

"The game has kind of moved on and evolved a lot over the last couple of years."

A native New Zealander, it will be "extra special" for Goodman to have his first Test as a coach be against the country of his birth.

"Growing up in New Zealand, I was rugby mad and the All Blacks were a big part of my upbringing," he added.

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The Irish Rugby Football Union [IRFU] has confirmed that a provincial 'A' championship will return next month.

The competition will see second string sides from each of the four provinces meet each other home and away between November and May in an effort to give those not featuring regularly in the United Rugby Championship game-time through the season.

"We’re delighted to kickstart the men’s ‘A’ Interprovincial championship which will provide a host of players with a further means of developing in a meaningful competition," said the IRFU's performance director David Humphreys.

"With the success of the Emerging Ireland tours, coupled with the return of an ‘A’ international against England next year, it is vital that we continue to provide players at provincial and club levels with opportunities to impress outside of the traditional URC and EPCR fixture windows.

"Discussions have been ongoing for some time to provide players with meaningful games and all four provinces are unanimously supportive of this competition."

Ulster will start their campaign by welcoming Connacht to Ballymacarn Park, the home of Ballynahinch RFC, on 22 November with Humphreys adding it is hoped the competition will benefit All-Ireland League clubs.

"It is also great to see provinces taking matches around their local clubs," he said.

"It is anticipated that as the competition progresses over the coming seasons these fixtures won’t clash with Energia All-Ireland League fixtures for the most part, thus potentially also offering players from the club game with an opportunity to impress.

"This competition will form another important part of the representative pathway from Energia AIL to URC levels for Academy players upwards over the coming seasons."

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Ireland will welcome France to Belfast and England to Cork in the 2025 Six Nations.

Scott Bemand's side will begin their campaign at Kingspan Stadium on 22 March against a French side ranked fourth in the world.

Ireland played Scotland at Kingspan Stadium in last year's Six Nations, winning the game to qualify for the 2025 World Cup.

They returned to the home of Ulster Rugby in September, beating the Wallaroos in what was a warm-up for their WXV1 campaign.

After an away trip to face Italy, they will then host the Red Roses at Musgrave Park on 12 April before finishing with visits to Wales and Scotland.

Ireland beat Wales in Cork during last season's Six Nations and used the venue for both of their home games in the 2023 championship.

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Connacht captain Cian Prendergast has signed a new three-year contract with the Irish province to keep him at the club until 2028.

The back-row forward has three caps for Ireland and was named in Andy Farrell's squad for the upcoming autumn internationals.

The 24-year-old made his Ireland debut in 2022 and was given the club captaincy in Galway at the start of the season.

"I’m thrilled to be committing my future to Connacht for a further three years, Prendergast told the Connacht Rugby website.

"I’ve enjoyed every minute since arriving four years ago, and with the new stadium and high performance centre on the way there’s a very exciting future ahead.

"I can’t wait to play my part in that and represent the people of Connacht for at least another three seasons, and give them the success we believe is possible.”

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Leinster will go into the international break top of the United Rugby Championship after beating the Lions 24-6 at the Aviva Stadium for their sixth win from six games played this season.

Leo Cullen's men did, however, drop their first point of the campaign having failed to collect a four-try bonus for the first time in 2024-25.

All six points for the South African visitors, who came into this round second in the table, came from the boot of Kade Wolhunter.

Less than two weeks from Ireland meeting New Zealand at the same ground, Leinster were able to call on a healthy number of their Test contingent for the top of the table meeting.

It was one of those Irish internationals who scored the only try of the first-half, Josh van Der Flier wriggling his way across the whitewash after Caelan Doris had been stopped short just prior.

Before that try in the 32nd minute, the only scoring of the first half had come through penalties, one for Leinster's Sam Prendergast and a pair from the Lions' Wolhunter.

The second half proved to be a similarly tight affair as conditions worsened.

While James Lowe was just unable to ground Prendergast's grubber kick beyond the try line, it took until almost the hour mark for the first points after the turn.

With Doris having made the carry that preceded Van der Flier's score in the first half, this time it was the openside flanker swivelling to pass to his number eight to set up the try for the new Irish captain.

As the Lions' charge faded despite a battling performance, Leinster had already made the victory safe by the time, with the last play of the game, they were awarded a penalty try when their maul was illegally stopped when driving over the line.

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Munster were heavily beaten by the Sharks in Durban but took a point from the United Rugby Championship contest thanks to Tadhg Beirne's 81st minute try.

The 41-22 reverse means that Munster go into the international break with three consecutive defeats and having lost four of their six URC games this season.

The Sharks, boasting a large contingent of Rassie Erasmus' Springbok squad for November, had their four-try bonus wrapped up by the half-time interval.

Aphelele Fassi had opened the scoring for the hosts with less than a minute on the clock and he was followed across the whitewash by Makazole Mapimpi, Grant Williams and Andre Esterhuizen in the opening 37 minutes.

Overpowered in the scrum and struggling with the Sharks pace out wide, Munster did respond through Tom Ahern and Mike Haley before the break.

The four-try bonus will certainly have been the goal for Graham Rowntree's men after the turn but they would concede the first ten points of the second half thanks to a Jordan Hendrikse penalty and Vincent Tshituka's chargedown score.

Calvin Nash's try off a Billy Burns kick-pass brought Munster within a score of the consolation bonus-point and it was left to captain Beirne to provide it from close range in the last play of the game.

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Munster and Leinster have named strong teams boasting plenty of Ireland players for their United Rugby Championship matches against South African opposition on Saturday.

Munster have named Calvin Nash, Jack Crowley, Craig Casey and Tadhg Beirne to start against the Sharks in Durban (15:00 BST), while Leinster have included a host of their Test players for their top-of-the-table clash with the Lions at Aviva Stadium (17:15).

Munster boss Graham Rowntree makes four changes from last week's loss to the Stormers with Rory Scannell, Casey, Stephen Archer and John Hodnett all recalled.

Caelan Doris, who was this week named Ireland captain for next month's autumn internationals, skippers a Leinster side featuring Robbie Henshaw for the first time this season. Henshaw will be partnered in midfield by Hugh Cooney, who makes his first senior start.

With Ciaran Frawley not included after his injury against Connacht last weekend, Sam Prendergast - who was included in the Ireland squad this week - starts at fly-half for Leo Cullen's side.

Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Rory Scannell, Sean O’Brien; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; John Ryan, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Tom Ahern, John Hodnett, Jack O’Donoghue.

Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Kieran Ryan, Ronan Foxe, Fineen Wycherley, Ruadhan Quinn, Ethan Coughlan, Billy Burns, Alex Kendellen.

Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Andrew Osborne; Hugh Cooney, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath; Michael Milne, Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani; RG Snyman, Ryan Baird; Max Deegan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).

Replacements: Stephen Smyth, Andrew Porter, Thomas Clarkson, Brian Deeny, James Culhane, Cormac Foley, Ross Byrne, Charlie Tector.