Team news

Wing Hansen returns - Ireland name team to face Tonga

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has named his match-day 23 to face Tonga in Pool B in Nantes on Saturday, 16 September.

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has recalled wing Mack Hansen and also brought in scrum-half Conor Murray, fit-again hooker Ronan Kelleher and flanker Josh van der Flier to the starting side to face Tonga in Pool A in Nantes on Saturday.

1 Andrew Porter
2 Ronan Kelleher
3 Tadhg Furlong
4 Tadhg Beirne
5 James Ryan
6 Peter O'Mahony
7 Josh van der Flier
8 Caelan Doris
9 Conor Murray
10 Johnny Sexton (c)
11 James Lowe
12 Bundee Aki
13 Garry Ringrose
14 Mack Hansen
15 Hugo Keenan

Replacements: 

16 Rob Herring
17 Dave Kilcoyne
18 Finlay Bealham
19 Iain Henderson
20 Ryan Baird
21 Craig Casey
22 Ross Byrne
23 Robbie Henshaw 

 

  • Andy Farrell has made four changes of personnel and two positional switches to the side which beat Romania 82-8 in round one, but the starting XV still boasts 819 caps.
  • Conor Murray, who replaces Jamison Gibson-Park at scrum-half, and Johnny Sexton have 222 caps between them and start together for the 69th time, extending their Ireland record for most appearances as a half-back combination.
  • The other change to the backline sees Mack Hansen return on the right wing in place of Keith Earls.
  • In the pack, Rob Herring makes way for Ronan Kelleher at hooker, while World Rugby Player of the Year 2022 Josh van der Flier returns at openside flanker, with Peter O’Mahony reverting to blindside and Tadhg Beirne moving into the second row, Joe McCarthy the man to make way.
  • Caelan Doris completes the back row, maintaining his record as the only player to have featured in every match for Ireland this year.
  • Having surpassed Ronan O'Gara as Ireland's record Rugby World Cup points scorer with 24 against Romania, Johnny Sexton is now just nine points adrift of O’Gara’s overall Irish test record of 1,083 points.
  • Bundee Aki’s 191 metres gained against Romania, which included five line breaks, was a new Irish record at Rugby World Cups, beating the previous record of 165m jointly held by Rob Kearney - against Russia in 2011 - and Geordan Murphy, against Argentina in 2007.