IRELAND’S MEETING WITH Portugal in Lisbon today [KO 7pm, Virgin Media], should allow interim head coach Paul O’Connell the opportunity to watch a very different type of game to last weekend’s win in Georgia.
Negotiating horribly wet conditions in Tbilisi, O’Connell’s new-look Ireland team had to get through plenty of dirty work and survive some error-heavy spells of play as they recorded an ultimately impressive and thoroughly deserved 29-point win.
Today’s forecast in Lisbon reads dry and low twenties, meaning Ireland should have the platform to play a bit more ball at the Estadio Nacional do Jamor – the scene of Celtic’s famous European Cup win in 1967.
That might also be why O’Connell – and Andy Farrell, who has had a say in selection from Australia – decided against more wholesale changes. There is sense in allowing players like Darragh Murray, Tom Ahern, Michael Milne and Tommy O’Brien a chance to build on their first caps last week, rather than having them dip their toe in Test waters only to be left waiting for a second opportunity.
Today’s 23 sees three new caps come into the mix. Shayne Bolton has been shaping up as a Test prospect for some time now since overcoming his early injury struggles at Connacht, and will look to showcase his explosive power on the wing. The 25-year-old hails from Pretoria but qualifies for Ireland through his grandmother, from Dublin.
Shayne Bolton, Hugh Gavin and Alex Kendellen are Ireland's three debutants in Portugal. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Bolton’s Connacht teammate Hugh Gavin had been due to debut off the bench, but was promoted to the starting team after Jamie Osborne received the call to join the Lions in Australia.
Gavin, 21, only has one year of senior rugby under his belt but was a standout talent across his two seasons with the Ireland U20s. Injury disrupted his first full season with Connacht – he made 10 appearances for the province and lined out for Ireland ‘A’ in February. At 6’3″ and weighing over 100kg, the former Galway minor footballer has a good athletic profile and a strong passing game. Gavin should benefit from having the experienced Stuart McCloskey alongside him in the Ireland midfield.
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The one new cap in the pack sees Munster’s Alex Kendellen join Ryan Baird and Cian Prendergast – who dropped out of last weekend’s game through illness – in the back row. The combative flanker is coming off his strongest season yet with Munster and the 24-year-old will be fully aware Ireland aren’t exactly blessed with options at openside.
The other big point of interest is the decision to start Jack Crowley at out-half, as Sam Prendergast rotates out of the matchday 23. O’Connell praised Prendergast’s role in the Georgia win and has called on Crowley to respond. With dry ball, the Munster out-half should have favourable conditions to do just that.
Ask any of the Ireland coaches or players about the out-half battle and they will inevitably include Ciarán Frawley in the conversation. The versatile Leinster man is back on the bench today and poised to win his first cap since last November.
Ciarán Frawley is set to win his first cap since November. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
The visitors will be strong favorites against a side currently ranked 18th in the world, but Portugal – now led by former Munster backs coach Simon Mannix – will look to play with pace in order to stretch Ireland in the Lisbon sun. It’s no secret Portugal did just that to Ireland in a pre-2023 World Cup training game, before they went on to record an historic win against Fiji in the tournament’s pool stages.
Not all of their playing squad are fully professional, with most playing in the country’s domestic league and a few outliers based in French rugby. Portugal have qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup but have struggled when asked to punch above their weight. They scored three converted tries in a 64-21 loss in South Africa last summer, followed by November defeats to the USA and Scotland. High-scoring wins against Belgium, Germany and Romania saw them top their Rugby Europe pool, before a semi-final loss to Spain and bronze final defeat to Romania.
“We’ve a good relationship with Portugal having trained against them pre the World Cup,” said O’Connell this week.
“That day, I can’t remember how many players we had, we had 38 or 40 players and we had some discussions that we didn’t want a lot of players on the sidelines, so we ended up playing them in two training blocks. We had one team go against one of their teams and then we had another team go against their other team and certainly the first team that played against us gave us plenty of it.
“I would say on the day they probably beat us in the training session… They did. They were excellent, an excellent attitude around playing to space, playing to space early, not afraid to make mistakes, not afraid to take risks, and the players still talk about that training session because we probably didn’t expect them to be as good as they were.
“I thought they were excellent at that World Cup and probably enjoyed following their progress since. It’s great to see them playing the likes of South Africa and doing quite well, playing the likes of Scotland and doing well, certainly scoring tries.
“So when I watch them anyway, I like what I see, I like their attitude to the game, I think a little bit similar to us, they want to play to the space and they want to play to the space as early as they can. So I just hope from that World Cup they can kick on and keep developing as a team.”
Development is the name of the game for both sides today. If Ireland can come out of this two-game tour with a hard-earned win in Georgia followed by a more cohesive victory in Lisbon, they’ll view this window as a job well done.
PORTUGAL: Nuno Sousa Guedes; Simao Bento, Vincent Pinto, Tomás Appleton (capt), Manuel Cardoso Pinto; Hugo Aubry, Hugo Camacho; David Costa, Luka Begic, Diogo Hasse Ferreira; António R. Andrade, Pedro Ferriera; David Wallis, Nicolas Martins, Diego Pinheiro.
Replacements: Abel Cunha, Pedro S. Lopes, Martim Souto, Guilherme Costa, Francisco Almeida, Vasco Batista, António Campos, Gabriel Aviragnet.
IRELAND: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Hugh Gavin, Stuart McCloskey, Shayne Bolton; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson; Tom Ahern, Darragh Murray; Ryan Baird, Alex Kendellen, Cian Prendergast.
Replacements: Tom Stewart, Michael Milne, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Max Deegan, Ben Murphy, Ciarán Frawley, Calvin Nash.
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Ireland aim to end depth-building summer tour on high note in Lisbon
IRELAND’S MEETING WITH Portugal in Lisbon today [KO 7pm, Virgin Media], should allow interim head coach Paul O’Connell the opportunity to watch a very different type of game to last weekend’s win in Georgia.
Negotiating horribly wet conditions in Tbilisi, O’Connell’s new-look Ireland team had to get through plenty of dirty work and survive some error-heavy spells of play as they recorded an ultimately impressive and thoroughly deserved 29-point win.
Today’s forecast in Lisbon reads dry and low twenties, meaning Ireland should have the platform to play a bit more ball at the Estadio Nacional do Jamor – the scene of Celtic’s famous European Cup win in 1967.
That might also be why O’Connell – and Andy Farrell, who has had a say in selection from Australia – decided against more wholesale changes. There is sense in allowing players like Darragh Murray, Tom Ahern, Michael Milne and Tommy O’Brien a chance to build on their first caps last week, rather than having them dip their toe in Test waters only to be left waiting for a second opportunity.
Today’s 23 sees three new caps come into the mix. Shayne Bolton has been shaping up as a Test prospect for some time now since overcoming his early injury struggles at Connacht, and will look to showcase his explosive power on the wing. The 25-year-old hails from Pretoria but qualifies for Ireland through his grandmother, from Dublin.
Bolton’s Connacht teammate Hugh Gavin had been due to debut off the bench, but was promoted to the starting team after Jamie Osborne received the call to join the Lions in Australia.
Gavin, 21, only has one year of senior rugby under his belt but was a standout talent across his two seasons with the Ireland U20s. Injury disrupted his first full season with Connacht – he made 10 appearances for the province and lined out for Ireland ‘A’ in February. At 6’3″ and weighing over 100kg, the former Galway minor footballer has a good athletic profile and a strong passing game. Gavin should benefit from having the experienced Stuart McCloskey alongside him in the Ireland midfield.
The one new cap in the pack sees Munster’s Alex Kendellen join Ryan Baird and Cian Prendergast – who dropped out of last weekend’s game through illness – in the back row. The combative flanker is coming off his strongest season yet with Munster and the 24-year-old will be fully aware Ireland aren’t exactly blessed with options at openside.
The other big point of interest is the decision to start Jack Crowley at out-half, as Sam Prendergast rotates out of the matchday 23. O’Connell praised Prendergast’s role in the Georgia win and has called on Crowley to respond. With dry ball, the Munster out-half should have favourable conditions to do just that.
Ask any of the Ireland coaches or players about the out-half battle and they will inevitably include Ciarán Frawley in the conversation. The versatile Leinster man is back on the bench today and poised to win his first cap since last November.
The visitors will be strong favorites against a side currently ranked 18th in the world, but Portugal – now led by former Munster backs coach Simon Mannix – will look to play with pace in order to stretch Ireland in the Lisbon sun. It’s no secret Portugal did just that to Ireland in a pre-2023 World Cup training game, before they went on to record an historic win against Fiji in the tournament’s pool stages.
Not all of their playing squad are fully professional, with most playing in the country’s domestic league and a few outliers based in French rugby. Portugal have qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup but have struggled when asked to punch above their weight. They scored three converted tries in a 64-21 loss in South Africa last summer, followed by November defeats to the USA and Scotland. High-scoring wins against Belgium, Germany and Romania saw them top their Rugby Europe pool, before a semi-final loss to Spain and bronze final defeat to Romania.
“We’ve a good relationship with Portugal having trained against them pre the World Cup,” said O’Connell this week.
“That day, I can’t remember how many players we had, we had 38 or 40 players and we had some discussions that we didn’t want a lot of players on the sidelines, so we ended up playing them in two training blocks. We had one team go against one of their teams and then we had another team go against their other team and certainly the first team that played against us gave us plenty of it.
“I would say on the day they probably beat us in the training session… They did. They were excellent, an excellent attitude around playing to space, playing to space early, not afraid to make mistakes, not afraid to take risks, and the players still talk about that training session because we probably didn’t expect them to be as good as they were.
“I thought they were excellent at that World Cup and probably enjoyed following their progress since. It’s great to see them playing the likes of South Africa and doing quite well, playing the likes of Scotland and doing well, certainly scoring tries.
“So when I watch them anyway, I like what I see, I like their attitude to the game, I think a little bit similar to us, they want to play to the space and they want to play to the space as early as they can. So I just hope from that World Cup they can kick on and keep developing as a team.”
Development is the name of the game for both sides today. If Ireland can come out of this two-game tour with a hard-earned win in Georgia followed by a more cohesive victory in Lisbon, they’ll view this window as a job well done.
PORTUGAL: Nuno Sousa Guedes; Simao Bento, Vincent Pinto, Tomás Appleton (capt), Manuel Cardoso Pinto; Hugo Aubry, Hugo Camacho; David Costa, Luka Begic, Diogo Hasse Ferreira; António R. Andrade, Pedro Ferriera; David Wallis, Nicolas Martins, Diego Pinheiro.
Replacements: Abel Cunha, Pedro S. Lopes, Martim Souto, Guilherme Costa, Francisco Almeida, Vasco Batista, António Campos, Gabriel Aviragnet.
IRELAND: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Hugh Gavin, Stuart McCloskey, Shayne Bolton; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson; Tom Ahern, Darragh Murray; Ryan Baird, Alex Kendellen, Cian Prendergast.
Replacements: Tom Stewart, Michael Milne, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Max Deegan, Ben Murphy, Ciarán Frawley, Calvin Nash.
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