The British and Irish Lions coaching group has been announced with John Fogarty, Simon Easterby, Richard Wigglesworth, John Dalziel and Andrew Goodman chosen as the men to assist Andy Farrell on the 2025 tour of Australia.

Each of these men has been involved nationally at different sides and brings a different skill set to the table for the upcoming tour. Andy Farrell has put in some leg work over recent months to see coaches as well as players and from a coaching perspective it would be important to sound people out and see who may be available and happy to travel.

Ireland will contribute three coaches with Goodman, Easterby and Fogarty travelling to Australia. England will see backs coach Richard Wigglesworth travel and Scotland forwards coach John Dalziel will also travel.

Ireland will be impacted but one has to think that this has been planned for and if it hasn’t then the IRFU hasn’t been very good at forward planning. The talk is that Paul O Connell will now lead the Irish coaching team travelling to Portugal and Georgia for the games over the summer.

For the coaches and support staff selected to go it is a trip of a life time and will allow the chance to swap ideas and see how other coaches operate on a daily basis. The work will now step up to narrow down the likely tourists from a long list to almost a squad set in stone that will itself be announced on May 8^th.

The last time the Lions won a series was the 2013 test series in Australia and the smart money will be on a repeat performance in 2025. Joe Schmidt is doing some forward planning himself and he will steer Australia through the Rugby Championship as well as the Lions series and then step aside to allow the new man come in to lead Australia to the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

The job of work starts now and you’ll see more of the recently assembled coaching team out and about most likely beginning during the round of 16 games in both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup as well as various big clashes in the URC and Premiership.

This summer Ireland will tour Georgia and Portugal and will select a young squad that will see players who went on the two Emerging Ireland tours alongside some already established names to see who may be in a position to make the permanent step up to the Irish senior set up on a regular basis.

Here is the squad I have selected to tour. I know some of the players I have selected may miss out through injury or suspension.

Forwards –

Jack Boyle, Jordan Duggan, Tom O Tooole – LH

Tom Stewart, Diarmuid Barron, Gus Mc Carthy – Hooker

Oli Jager, Jack Auniger, Thomas Clarkson – TH

Tom Ahern, Darragh Murray, Cormac Izuchkwu , Evan O Connell – SR

Alex Kendellan, Gavin Coombes, Dave Mc Cann, James Culhane, Cian Prendergast, Max Deegan, John Hodnett – BR/No.8

Backs –

Craig Casey, Fintan Gunne, Ben Murphy – SH

Jack Crowley, Sam Prendergast, Jack Murphy – FH

Hugh Gavin, Jude Postlewaite, Cathal Forde, James Hume – Centre

Shane Boulton, Jimmy O Brien, Tommy O Brien, Diarmuid Killgallon, Calvin Nash – Wing

Ben O Connor, Andrew Osbourne, Jamie Osbourne – FB

Prop – Ellis Genge, Andrew Porter, Nicky Smith – Loose Head

Zander Fagerson, Will Stuart, Finlay Bealham – Tight Head

Hooker– Dan Sheehan, Jamie George, Luke Cowen Dickie

Second Row – Tadgh Beirne, Maro Itoje, Jonny Gray, Dafydd Jenkins

Back Row – Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Jac Morgan, Rory Darge

Number 8 – Caelan Doris, Jack Dempsey, Jack Conan

Backs-

Scrum Half – Jamison Gibson Park, Tomos Williams, Alex Mitchell

Fly Half – Fin Smith, Finn Russell, Marcus Smith

Centre – Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Bundee Aki, Garry Ringrose

Wing – Tommy Freeman, James Lowe, Darcy Graham, Duhan Van Der Merwe

Full Back – Blair Kinghorn, Blair Murray, Hugo Keenan

Here is my team of the 6 Nations that last night saw France crowned Champions after a 35-16 win over Scotland in Paris. Ireland defeated Italy in Rome 22-17 and England won 68-14 in Cardiff. France topped the table on 21 points with England in 2^nd on 20 points and Ireland in 3^rd on points difference.

My selection is made up of 6 French, 5 English, 2 Irish, one from Wales and Scotland. Here is my XV of the Championship –

15 Thomas Ramos –France

14 Louis Bielle Biarrey – France

13 Huw Jones – Scotland

12 Yoann Moefana- France

11 James Lowe – Ireland

10 Fin Smith – England

9 Alex Mitchell – England

8 Gregory Alldritt- France

7 Jac Morgan – Wales

6 Tom Curry- England

5 Thibault Flament – France

4 Maro Itoje – England

3 Uini Antonio – France

2 Dan Sheehan – Ireland

1 Ellis Genge – England

Jack Crowley will start at 10 this weekend in the final six nations game of the current campaign. He will start his first game of the Championship this year. He has been on the bench for the rest of the Championship.

His start comes in the week that has seen him linked with a move away from Ireland with Leicester Tigers apparently linked to make a big money move to replace the departing Handre Pollard who moves back to the URC and the Bulls next season.

Let’s hope that all the talk of moves and money will take a back seat in Italy on Saturday and Crowley can allow his rugby to do the talking in a game that is crucial to see Ireland finish the campaign on a winning note.

All week, we have seen talk of Jack Crowley and not one major mention of the impending game in Rome that will also see the International careers of both Conor Murray and Peter O Mahony come to a close. Cian Healy has been left out with Leinster team mate Jack Boyle taking his spot on the bench in the hope of winning a 2^nd cap.

The focus will shift towards a tie in Rome that will see Ireland in need of putting up a big score to put the pressure on both England and France later in the day. The Super Saturday element is there but only just and the smart money will still be on France to the needful on home soil on Saturday night vs Scotland.

Ireland have selected a well drilled side with only minimal change with Boyle coming in for Healy and Crowley stepping in at 10 for Prendergast. and Ringrose replace Bundee Aki in the centre. We get another chance to see the future of the Ireland loose head side with Jack Boyle getting another shot to come in for Andrew Porter at some stage of the game.

Finlay Bealham and Thomas Clarkson have shown the way forward on the tight head side in recent weeks with men like Oli Jager in the background keeping the pressure on along with Jack Auniger.

Tadgh Furlong gets a chance to see where he is at the moment given he has spent a large part of the season on the treatment table. Italy will test him out when he comes on.

Ireland will want to finish the Championship with a strong positive performance and will also want to show that they have learned from mistakes this campaign and will need to be very disciplined in defence and solid in attack as well as showing some adventure with an attacking game plan that has shown only glimpses of steps forward under Andrew Goodman.

Amazing that one loss had deflated the optimism that was there after the victory over England in week 1 even with the concession of the two late tries on that evening. The future will look after itself so for now it’s all eyes on Rome and putting the best foot forward….

France will go into the final day of this season’s 6 Nations in pole position to lift another Six Nations crown after a 42-27 win over Ireland in Dublin yesterday.

 Ireland will know they left opportunities behind them in particular in the opening 20 minutes where they dominated possession and territory but they could not make that count as they were held up over the line and then turned over on the try line. When you miss these chances against the best teams you will regret not taking your chance when they are presented.

France had a break away try chalked off owing to a knock on in the build up and that signalled the intent of the French attack after the Shaun Edwards drilled defence had held under a barrage of pressure in that opening 20 minutes.

The moment that had France reeling after the game came in the 29^th minute when Antoine Dupont was trying to secure a turn over and he was knock backwards by Tadgh Beirne and Andrew Porter and did enough damage to his knee that saw him replaced by Bordeaux Begles scrum half Maxime Lucu.

In the aftermath of the game yesterday, Fabien Galthie has said he will be reporting the actions of Beirne, Porter and Calvin Nash to the citing commissioners so I have the feeling that the Irish camp hasn’t heard the last of those two incidents from the game.

Back to the game, after Dupont went off the introduction of Lucu seemed to take time to take hold and affect the game but as the first half drew to a conclusion France were beginning to gain control and they led 8-6 at the half through a Ramos penalty and Bielle Biarrey try.

In response Ireland had two penalties from Sam Prendergast who was very clever in the final moments of that opening half by nudging his penalty attempt slightly above the given mark and placing the ball on the half way line and then finding his range to kick a fine penalty.

Ireland did lose Joe Mc Carthy to a very silly yellow card for pulling Bielle Biarrey back as he tried to race clear to regather a kick ahead. France played a typical French game plan of playing what is in front of you and going from anywhere and that kept the Irish defence constantly guessing.

Ireland lost James Lowe in warm up to a back spasm which brought Calvin Nash into the side on the right wing with Jamie Osbourne moving over the left wing. This loss had an impact on the game plan on the day but to be fair to Calvin Nash who also saw yellow for head contact in the tackle which was deemed on the lower part of the scale and the yellow card was deem sufficient punishment for Nash.

These two cards absolutely killed any momentum that Ireland build up in both halves and allowed France attack through Ramos, Penaud, Mofana et al…. The 7/1 split also had the desired affect when the game was in the melting pot after Dan Sheehan got over to put Ireland 13-8 up early in the second half.

Unfortunately for Ireland that is as good as it got as France fired straight back and reclaimed the lead that they would not relinquish for the final 30 minutes of the contest and even though Ireland did manage two late tries through Cian Healy on the occasion of his last appearance in the Aviva and Jack Conan both were converted by Sam Prendergast.

The Irish attack didn’t flow as well as it has done previously and even with the best efforts of Hugo Keenan in particular who seemed to take on the James Lowe role of being the extra man in whichever attacking shape Ireland were trying to use.

Full credit must go to the French defence who worked so hard to get off the line and close down any attempt by Ireland to get to the outside and try and create chances for scores. It was a lesson in keeping bodies on their feet and keeping disciplined under pressure.

Ireland need to clean up their act in defence, they have given up a number of cards in this campaign with a game to go in Rome next Saturday at 2.15pm.

I think Simon Easterby will make a few changes to the side for the last game with still a slim mathematical chance of a title. It is of course unlikely that France will now be caught but Scotland go to Paris full of beans and hell bent on trying to deny France a win on home soil to seal another title.

Here is the XV I would select to play in Rome –

15 Hugo Keenan

14 Calvin Nash

13 Garry Ringrose

12 Robbie Henshaw

11 James Lowe

10 Jack Crowley

9 Jamison Gibson Park

8 Caelan Doris

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 Tadgh Beirne

5 James Ryan

4 Joe Mc Carthy

3 Finlay Bealham

2 Dan Sheehan

1 Andrew Porter

–

16 Ronan Kelleher or Gus Mc Carthy

17 Cian Healy

18 Thomas Clarkson

19 Gavin Coombes

20 Jack Conan

21 Conor Murray

22 Sam Prendergast

23 Jamie Osbourne

JJ Hanrahan will return to Munster on a two year deal after spells with Clermont Auvergne, Dragons and the past two seasons with Connacht. This will be his third spell with Munster after initialling leaving to move to Northampton Saints.

The Munster squad is now taking shape for the 25/26 season, Dan Kelly joins up from Leicester Tigers and the two men joining up from Leinster, Michael Milne and Lee Barron. There are also a number of guys stepping up from the academy to senior deals like Evan O Connell, Brian Gleeson and Kieran Ryan.

The news of Clayton Mc Millan’s arrival next season will help focus the squad for the rest of the current campaign. They face two away matches this month. They are away to Glasgow and Connacht after the 6 Nations ends.

I am sure Mr Mc Millan had a say in Hanrahan’s arrival for a third spell. He will compete alongside Jack Crowley, Dylan Hicks, Tony Butler and Billy Burns for a place in the match day 23 next year. I have seen early comment to suggest that this is step backward in terms of bringing Munster forward under the new coach.

Time will tell weather this move will benefit Munster but you do need a senior 10 in the squad to help develop the younger 10s within the group and to step in if your main 10 is away on national duty or injured.

JJ will settle in straight off the bat as he has been in the Munster set up previously and that is one big plus given the fact a new coach will also be trying to implement his own style on the playing group.

Munster will want to end the current season on a strong footing and will also want to address to poor performance on home soil last Friday night. They will have to wait another two weeks before the URC returns for the run in.

They also face La Rochelle in the last 16 of the Champions Cup early next month. La Rochelle have had a rough period losing a number of games and they will want to return to good solid form before the visit of Munster.

So while the Munster squad to play under incoming man Clayton Mc Millan is taking shape nicely, the current squad has a job of work to do starting away to Glasgow in two weeks time…..

15 Hugo Keenan

14 Mack Hansen

13 Robbie Henshaw

12 Bundee Aki

11 James Lowe

10 Jack Crowley

9 Jamison Gibson Park

8 Caelan Doris

7 Josh Van Der Flier

6 Tadgh Beirne

5 James Ryan

4 Joe Mc Carthy

3 Finlay Bealham

2 Dan Sheehan

1 Andrew Porter

–

16 Ronan Kelleher

17 Cian Healy

18 Thomas Clarkson

19 Peter O Mahony

20 Ryan Baird

21 Conor Murray

22 Sam Prendergast

23 Jamie Osbourne

Here is the 23 I would select to take France on this weekend in Round 4 of the 6 Nations…

Week 4 of the 6 Nations is upon us with Ireland facing France in Dublin on Saturday at 2.15pm. Ireland are 3 from 3 and will go into this game on the back of a workmanlike performance away to Wales in round 3.

That particular showing will have sharpened the minds and also the fact France put 73 points on the board against Italy in Rome. This game is set up beautifully as a win for France will set them on course to win the Championship as they have a very healthy score difference. 

Galthie and Edwards will know they haven’t delivered enough silverware over the last few years and the intent shown in the victory in Rome shows they mean business to win the 6 Nations crown this year.

They will come to Dublin as favourites even though Ireland are still unbeaten this Championship. Ireland will know the showing in Cardiff will not be good enough to gain victory on Saturday. They will need to look back to the two previous wins over France under Farrell in 2023 and last year in Marseilles for a way forward and toward a win.

The selection at 10 will be interesting in green as Jack Crowley will have been pushing Prendergast hard over the past fortnight since the win in Wales. I am sure training has had that extra bite that only certain fixtures will bring out during the season.

Ireland will have to plan without Garry Ringrose but that may just make selection in the centre more straightforward that difficult. Who will take the 23 jersey as Ireland will go 5/3 on the bench. France have tinkered around with a few combinations through rounds one to three going 7/1 vs Italy two weeks ago. They most likely won’t do that coming to Dublin.

It is France and the unpredictability is what makes them so much fun to watch on the field as well as team selections. They will have the loss in Marseilles fresh in the mind and will want to redress the balance. France have unearthed a few gems with Louis Bielle –Biarrey and Leo Barre producing scintillating performances in blue over the early weeks of the campaign.

France have shown real attacking intent and only a piece of attacking brilliance from England late on in Allianz Stadium denied them victory. They reacted to that defeat by hammering Italy and putting the campaign back on track. They will bring a big support with them to Dublin and here’s hoping that the Irish support will be there early and ready to affect the game if called upon.

Simon Easterby has done well over the first part of the Championship and will know his tenure will be marked by the game against France after beating England in round one. Saturday is set up wonderfully and the winner on Saturday will most likely go on to be crowned champions the following weekend.

Ireland haven’t won many championships over the history of the 5/6 Nations and even fewer grand slams so yet again this year has been well set up.

Ireland are trying to win a hat trick of championships and that is something truly special if it can be achieved. Plenty of water to run under the bridge before all of that is decided of course. All roads lead to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday for a 2.15pm kick off. If your heading to Aviva, arrive early, be loud and don’t forget to breathe because this game promises to have it all….