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Six NationsIreland

Six changes for the Italy-bound Ireland, including new half-backs

(Photo by Ian Cook/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Andy Farrell has named an Ireland team to play Italy on Saturday that shows six changes – including a new half-back partnership – from their Guinness Six Nations round two win over France. The title favourites defeated the 2022 Grand Slam champions 32-19 in Dublin on February 11 and they now head to Rome with a much-shuffled selection.

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With skipper Johnny Sexton and second row Tadhg Beirne out of the reckoning due to injury, this was always going to be a changed XV chosen for the Stadio Olimpico assignment.

There are three changes in the backline. Aside from first Six Nations starts being given to Ross Byrne and Craig Casey in place of the absent Sexton and the benched Conor Murray, Bundee Aki is promoted in place of Stuart McCloskey who is named on this occasion in the replacements.

Video Spacer

James Ryan reacts to being named Ireland captain to face Italy in the Six Nations

Video Spacer

James Ryan reacts to being named Ireland captain to face Italy in the Six Nations

In the pack, Ronan Kelleher is at hooker in place of Rob Herring, the victim of the headshot from France’s Uini Atonio the last day.

Iain Henderson takes over from the missing Beirne while Jack Conan is rotated to start in place of the benched Peter O’Mahony at No8 with Caelan Doris switching to blindside. On the bench, Dan Sheehan, Ryan Baird and Jack Crowley are the new additions.

Related

Garbisi back as Italy name team with three changes to play Ireland

Italy have made three changes to their starting team to face Ireland on Saturday in the Guinness Six Nations, including the recall of fit-again out-half Paolo Garbisi.

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Ireland (vs Italy, Saturday – 2:15pm)
15. Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 27 caps
14. Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians) 11 caps
13. Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 49 caps
12. Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 43 caps
11. James Lowe (Leinster) 17 caps
10. Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD) 16 caps
9. Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) 9 caps
1. Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 50 caps
2. Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 19 caps
3. Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) 29 caps
4. Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 70 caps
5. James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 50 caps (c)
6. Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 25 caps
7. Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 47 caps
8. Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 35

Replacements:
16. Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) 14 caps
17. Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 50 caps
18. Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 6 caps
19. Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 8 caps
20. Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 91 caps caps
21. Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 102 caps
22. Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) 2 caps
23. Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) 11 caps

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Comments on RugbyPass

R
RedWarrior 11 minutes ago
Andy Farrell faces up to concerning Irish 'trends' ahead of Fiji

There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.

SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.

2 Go to comments
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RedWarrior 28 minutes ago
Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

Yep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?

45 Go to comments
M
Mark 39 minutes ago
Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Totally agree, and with the Greenwood comment you have hit the nail on the head, England have never managed to replace Greenwood.

And although it's a simple analogy if you look at today's England side, how many of them would make a combined world xv?.

As you allude to, they are I'm afraid mediocre.

3 Go to comments
L
Lisa Decker 42 minutes ago
Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

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45 Go to comments
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Werner 44 minutes ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

I dare say it's an "everyone against the ABs" scrapbook. Only time I've seen him give half a compliment is when he talks about other teams beating the Springboks. Even in this article he puts the Argentina win in NZ down to the ABs being bad rather than the Argentines playing well, which they have been doing all year round.

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AA 55 minutes ago
Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Agreed. Borthwick will have to write a new excuse book soon .


I have looked at the two world cup final teams from 2003 and 2020.


2003 team scored 187 tries between them in 389 caps

2020 team scored 113 tries between them in 473 caps. As you can see a huge disparity in scoring rate. Only Johnny May with 36 tries in 78 caps scored a higher amount of tries. Elliot Daly comes close but the rest are frankly very poor.

Farrell and Ford scored a pathetic 20 tries between them in a combined 210 caps.

There again , the 2003 team did have Wilko and Greenwood etc whereas 2020 team had Ford and Farrell .

So much people saying that Fords strength is of bringing others into the game .

Really. The figures totally disprove that notion .

It has been mentioned elsewhere that we have accepted mediocrity far too often and the figures would indicate that players are or have been picked far too often without performing .

3 Go to comments
A
Alex 1 hour ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

Not disputing that NZ are ahead of Eng. Also not saying Eng are unlucky (though clearly the tone of the article is not that the ABs were unlucky but that they 'should have' won). Your team are looking great and are on the up. I just felt that Pundits have argued Eng 'should have' won the first test against the ABs, when it's more nuanced than that, and very fine margins determine results that Eng didn't get right. Same applies, therefore, to NZ and other nations. Ben Smith though doesn't seem to see it that way. To be clear: I'm not saying I agree with the 'should haves', but more that I take issue with the phrasing.


Good to see your respect for other nations is so strong! Proper rugby fan you are!!!

49 Go to comments
R
RedWarrior 1 hour ago
Did Rassie Erasmus miss a trick with his latest South Africa squad?

GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.

52 Go to comments
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RedWarrior 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

The 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.

The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.

You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.

For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.

A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.

Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?

Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?

If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?

307 Go to comments
S
SteveD 1 hour ago
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner

But it is fun to wind up the skaapnaaiers particularly. Bring it on!!

10 Go to comments
B
Bull Shark 1 hour ago
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner

Oh yes. Of course. The boks can never win well enough to shut the doos peanut gallery up.


But who gives a sh1t. Winning is everything.

10 Go to comments
N
Ninjin 1 hour ago
Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

Whatever gives you hope ok👍but deep down inside you know the truth.

45 Go to comments
B
Bull Shark 1 hour ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

I'm sure he has some stuff in his "I hate South Africa" scrapbook he can dredge out.

49 Go to comments
R
RedWarrior 1 hour ago
Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

All 4 Irish provinces will likely be top 8 in URC this year.

The second last match we beat SA in SA with a lot of young guys. Farrell should have played them again. Jamie Osborne at FB dominated the skies against SA in Durban. He was the form player ahead of Keenan. Similarly Aki and Hansen are not in good form for their province and should not have started. Even playing so poorly we had chances to get a couple of scores up on NZ which we didn't take. Your only observations of Irish rugby are at national level. You are in no position to discuss strenght in depth because you simply don't know. Losing that match might be no bad thing for Ireland.

45 Go to comments
H
HT 1 hour ago
What Noah Lolesio said about Finn Russell before Scotland showdown

Noah forgot to mention how good a tackler Finn is as well.


We are in for a cracker of a match.

1 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
New Zealand can't keep losing first fives like Harry Plummer

I'd rather just have Dmac at home than both Mo'unga and Dmac playing abroad.

9 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
New Zealand can't keep losing first fives like Harry Plummer

Yep, only once they hit this age though.

9 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
New Zealand can't keep losing first fives like Harry Plummer

Certainly the main concern with his departure is drop in standard of Super Rugby.


I agree, which is why not too dissapointed with this weeks team naming.

9 Go to comments
S
SteveD 1 hour ago
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner

And of course, if the Boks don't thrash them we'll get all the nonsense from the poms, ABs and of course the Aussies about how they're so weak they should never have been allowed to win the RWC etc etc. Hehehehehehehe.....

10 Go to comments
S
SadersMan 1 hour ago
What Wallabies great expects from Aussie women’s side at Dubai Sevens

The Aussie girls only won two of the seven tournaments on the 2023/24 series circuit. But under this silly system, a team can potentially win zero tourneys on the Series Circuit but by virtue of winning the "Grand Final" shootout, are crowned Series Champions. Ridiculous.

1 Go to comments
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