Previous Results

The last 10 years have certainly been in Ireland’s favour with 7 wins against 3 losses (winning team highlighted in bold)

If history shows us one thing, it’s that when England win against Ireland, they win well.

What will 2011 bring?

Saturday 19th March – KO 17:00

The Team:
Forwards: 1-Cian Healy, 2-Rory Best, 3-Mike Ross, 4-Donncha O’Callaghan, 5-Paul O’Connell, 6-Sean O’Brien, 7-David Wallace, 8-Jamie Heaslip.

Backs: 9-Eoin Reddan, 10-Jonathan Sexton, 11-Andrew Trimble, 12-Gordon D’Arcy, 13-Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 14-Tommy Bowe, 15-Keith Earls.

Replacements: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Leo Cullen, Denis Leamy, Peter Stringer, Ronan O’Gara, Paddy Wallace.

The Underdogs? According to the bookmakers England will be favourites going into this weekends game. We all know anything can happen in rugby especially when an English team comes to visit. For many fans Ireland are unlikely to feel like the underdogs on home turf.

PaddyPower are offering odds of 6/4 for an Irish win, great odds if your a believer!

A few highlights of this fixture

Keith Wood Try – 2001

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The Anthems! – 2007

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Historic moment at Croker even the referee can be spotted singing Ireland’s call at 3:43.

Matin Johnson vs Ireland – 2003

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Shane Horgan Try – 2007

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For the Ireland v Wales match you could be Ireland’s bagman! Don’t worry you will be in good hands as you join the legend Rala, Ireland’s head bagman.

Experience a truly “backstage” experience with the Irish Rugby team on 6 Nations match day!

Enter the Competition Here

Full Prize Includes:
Helping the Bagman for the Day
Overnight Stay in a Dublin Hotel
€100 Paddy Power bet on the game
€100 Beer Money (you’ll need a pint after all that hard work!)
Signed Irish Jersey by the Team & Rala

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Learn more about Rala!

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Puma have replaced Canterbury as the IRFU’s chosen jersey manufacturer. The new shirt returns to Irish Rugby’s roots with a classic design and a new shade or green. Puma call it “power green”.

New Puma Irish Rugby Jersey

Buy your jersey online from the official Irish Rugby store.

Jochen Zeitz, Chairman and CEO of PUMA, said:

“Developing the team kit, replica kit and training equipment has been an extremely exciting process for the brand and we’re proud to have worked so closely with both the players and the coaching staff to achieve a really strong and exciting new range of Irish rugby kit.”

“The new kit incorporates PUMA’s latest technologies that have been used in the past for some of the most demanding sporting occasions – and has performed extraordinarily from the Pit Lane at Imola to the 100 metre finals in Beijing and Berlin.

This years Guinness autumn test matches will see Ireland face Australia (15th Nov), Fiji (21st) and South Africa (28th).

Brian O’Driscoll is set to resume captaining duties for the 3 autumn Internationals. There is no doubt Brian has the credentials to lead Ireland after captaining the team to win this years Six Nations Championship.

The Irish Squad are currently training in preparation for their first match against Australia. A number of injury concerns are hanging over the squad with Marcus Horan currently undergoing medical tests after experiencing dizziness in last months Munster match against Benetton Treviso.

Other concerns include Rob Kearney, Jerry Flannery, Tomas O’Leary, Paddy Wallace Denis Leamy, Tony Buckley and Leo Cullen. However most of these players are thought to be available for next weeks test match.

If you are interested in writing articles for this site, maybe match reports or even a one-off Irish rugby traveling story then please get in touch. I would love to hear from any interested fans out there. andrew@irishrugby.co.uk

So what’s new?

Irish Rugby Jersey

In case you have not noticed Puma have replaced Canterbury for this seasons rugby kit. After a long partnership with Canterbury the powers above have decided its time for a fresh start.

I must say while I am a fan of Canterbury, I was not a fan of last seasons jersey. The new puma jersey is reminiscent of a classic Irish jersey sticking with a simple single block of colour for the design. Just have to get used to a new shade of green!

New Puma Irish Rugby Jersey

What are your views on the new kit?

Irish Rugby logo

Along with a new kit, the IRFU has decided to update the official Irish Rugby logo, or identity as they like to call it. The official announcement

Old v.s. New Irish Rugby Logo

“Probably, out of all the teams in the Six Nations, the Welsh players dislike the Irish the most.”

Gatland’s comments are probably no more than off the field tactics to get a reaction out of the Irish camp. However it seems to have done little to spoil the Irish momentum leading into this weekend’s big game.

Kidney announced three changes to the starting line-up. The battle at scrum half continues with O’Leary starting ahead of Stringer, slightly confusing after Stringers excellent game last week but I am sure we will see him at some point. Two other welcomed changes come in the form of Flannery and Heaslip returning to the starting 15.

Ireland: Rob Kearney; Tommy Bowe, Brian O’Driscoll (capt), Gordon D’Arcy, Luke Fitzgerald; Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary; Marcus Horan, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell (capt), Stephen) Ferris, David Wallace, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Rory Best, Tom Court, M O’Driscoll, Denis Leamy, Peter Stringer, Paddy Wallace, Geordan Murphy.

Kick-off: 17:15 – Saturday 8 November
Venue: Thomond Park

Ireland will kick of their string of friendlies against Canada in the recently renovated Thomond Park. The match should provide a great opportunity to for coach Declan Kidney to hand out a few new caps in the form of Ryan Cladwell and Keith Earls.

Team
Ireland: Earls; Bowe, O’Driscoll, capt, Fitzgerald, Kearney; O’Gara, Reddan; Horan, Flannery, Buckley, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Ferris, Jennings, Heaslip.
Replacements (from): R Best, Hayes, Caldwell, Quinlan, D Wallace, P Wallace, Stringer, Horgan.

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It safe to say the pressure is on New Zealand and the home crowd will be expecting an a good win to make up for the team’s World Cup disappointment. After a long season of rugby, especially for the Munster players, it is set to be a tough encounter for Ireland.

Team
Ireland: R Kearney, S Horgan, Brian O’Driscoll (cpt), P Wallace, T Bowe, R O’Gara, E Reddan, J Heaslip, D Wallace, D Leamy, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, J Hayes, J Flannery, M Horan.
Replacements: G Dempsey, G Murphy, P Stringer, S Jennings, M O’Driscoll, T Buckley, R Best.

Both John Hayes and captain Brian O’Driscoll will win their 80th caps on the day with Malcolm O’Kelly extending the all time record to 92 caps.

Full team as follows:

Ireland: G Dempsey; A Trimble, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, G Murphy; R O’Gara, E Reddan; M Horan, R Best, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, M O’Kelly, S Easterby, D Wallace, D Leamy.

Replacements: B Jackman, T Buckley, M O’Driscoll, J Heaslip, P Stringer, P Wallace, R Kearney.