1. James Ryan
Leinster’s new co-captain has long been earmarked to lead his country, albeit he didn’t always strike as an obvious choice to his teammates.
While Ryan captained numerous underage teams including the Ireland U20s in 2015/16, his transition towards becoming a dominant personality in Leinster’s senior ranks was a gradual one.
Until around 2019, his fellow players would speak of ‘Cheese’, a lovably goofy character whose mother still dropped him to training. While Ryan’s performances dictated that the drum began to beat for his eventually captaincy of Ireland, some Leinster teammates felt that Ryan, while universally beloved, marched too closely to the beat of his own drum to command the kind of deference that Johnny Sexton had attained in blue and green dressing rooms over the years.
But with some prodding from both province and national team, Ryan wasn’t long changing that narrative. He first captained Ireland in Sexton’s absence against England and has since skippered his country on eight occasions, the most recent being a World Cup warm-up against the same opposition.
The 27-year-old lock is the overwhelming bookies’ favourite to lead the Lions in Australia under Andy Farrell in the summer of 2025 and, at this point, it would be a surprise if Farrell went another route with his Ireland captaincy selection.
With 59 caps to his name, Ryan is almost an ever-present when fit — the one exception coming against Scotland at the World Cup when he was benched for Iain Henderson. There’s a case to be made that he might only enter his prime around the time of the 2027 World Cup, by which time he’ll be 31.
There are parts of captaincy upon which he still needs to work: such was his vocality in the early stages of the Champions Cup, both Matthew Carley and Pierre Brousset refused to engage with him and instead treated Garry Ringrose as Leinster’s sole captain.
But Ryan — as seen on Saturday when he almost singlehandedly sorted Leinster’s lineout woes upon his second-half introduction against Stade Francais — is typically a cool head even in and amongst madness.
2. Garry Ringrose
Ringrose was elected Leinster skipper ahead of his current co-captain for the eastern province’s Pro14 final success over Ulster in 2020. His development as a leader in the years since has only strengthened his candidacy ahead of Farrell’s announcement tomorrow.
Ringrose has yet to captain Ireland but given his grip on the 13 shirt — and taking into consideration that James Ryan will face competition from two of Iain Henderson, Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne (at least) in the coming years — many supporters believe him the most suitable candidate to succeed Johnny Sexton.
The outside centre, who turns 29 in a fortnight’s time, has become a lead-by-doing figure for Ireland in any case. His unequivocal selflessness in defence is greatly admired by teammates, as is his rugby IQ which has seen him take on a defensive-leadership role similar to that of Jared Payne before him.
Ringrose is a softly spoken character but, as the good cop to James Ryan’s bad, he has done fairly well in his communications with referees so far this season.
One could argue that, at test level, he would need to take things closer to the line with refs and even stick a toe over it on occasion. But one could equally argue that a player as intelligent and as competitive as Ringrose wouldn’t be long finding his own means of doing so.
3. Iain Henderson
For Farrell to name Henderson Ireland captain would be to effectively state that he intends to use one of James Ryan or Tadhg Beirne from the bench. That would strike as a bold call until you remember that that’s exactly what he did the last time all three locks were available for Ireland: it was Henderson who started over the fully fit Ryan against Scotland in Ireland’s final World Cup pool game.
Ryan later missed the quarter-final against the All Blacks through injury but Henderson could well be forgiven for thinking that he is the incumbent heading into this Six Nations championship.
Ulster captain since succeeding Rory Best in 2019, the Co. Armagh native is still only 31 and impressed Farrell and co. in how he went about captaining Ireland during the weeks of the World Cup warm-ups against Italy and Samoa.
That he’s centrally contracted to the IRFU until 2025 will tell you the regard in which Ireland hold him.
Aside from stout competition at lock, the big question regarding Henderson surrounds his fitness — but the backend of last season saw him enjoy one of his longest stretches in recent memory, and some of his career-best rugby for Ireland suitably followed.
While he has traditionally been the third man up at lock under Farrell, Henderson will be hellbent on becoming a more routine starter in the coming years, in which case he’d be a superb candidate.
4. Tadhg Beirne
Arguably Ireland’s best player over the last two years, it seems inevitable that Beirne will succeed Peter O’Mahony as Munster’s long-term captain — and his world-class form for province and country shows little sign of abating.
Beirne is a year Henderson’s senior and will be 35 by the time the next World Cup rolls around, but that scarcely feels prohibitively old for a second row.
There are few more inspiring characters in the Ireland dressing room than Beirne, who fell through the cracks of the Irish system and took the scenic route towards becoming one of his country’s most pivotal players.
It was once presumed that he was slightly too small to play lock at international level. He has since won two test caps with the Lions and was named in World Rugby’s best XV for 2022. He has improved as both a player and a voice since.
While he would be a left-field choice as captain for the moment, Beirne would equally be a universally popular choice in the Ireland dressing room.
5. Peter O’Mahony
O’Mahony would be far higher up this list were it not the case that his future with Munster was so uncertain. Unless a contract offer is tabled in the coming weeks — by either the IRFU or Munster, or some kind of combination of the two — test centurion O’Mahony will depart his native province in the summer after 14 years in which he has become a bona fide legend.
It remains hypothetical for the moment, but having a newly appointed Ireland captain announce his impending departure from Irish rugby soon afterwards would be clown-show material, and Andy Farrell will be more than aware of those optics.
In any case, at 34, O’Mahony would likely have become a one- or two-year captain for Ireland even if his Munster future was secure, and Farrell probably wouldn’t enjoy the idea of a handover halfway through the upcoming World Cup cycle.
There can be no doubting his standing among his peers, however, nor could his pedigree as a prospective captain be questioned. O’Mahony first skippered Ireland at the age of 23 and was captain for the whole victorious tour of Australia in 2018.
Indeed, he was a de facto captain even during the reign of his close friend, Johnny Sexton, often being asked to liaise with referees even while Sexton was on the field.
Captain or not, O’Mahony will fulfill a similar role when he’s on the field during the upcoming Six Nations.
6. Caelan Doris
Again, Doris might have been ranked higher had he not roundly denied the possibility of his appointment earlier this week.
Doris might have been accused of playing dumb had he not gone on to outline in great detail his fallibility in the role during Leinster’s home defeat to Ulster a couple of weeks ago. It was a refreshing admission from the Ballina-native back row, who said: “I probably struggled a little bit. I was probably initially eager to talk to Frank [Murphy] after both of their tries because I thought there was a knock-on on one and a potential ahead of kicking but I was wrong on both and I annoyed him a little bit doing that and struggled a little bit from there.”
One suspects Doris wouldn’t have laid so much bare if he was days away from being named captain of his country — but perhaps Andy Farrell could surprise us all, Doris included.
The 25-year-old captained Blackrock in the 2016 Leinster Schools Senior Cup and captained Ireland U20s at the World Cup two years later. He has played in 29 consecutive senior tests since 2021, and is plainly one of Ireland’s three or four best players.
Those are ingredients which will surely make for a great successor to whoever is given the figurative armband tomorrow, if indeed it’s not Doris himself.
Dark horses
Tadhg Furlong has been a member of Ireland’s leadership group since Andy Farrell took over in 2020 and these days relishes the role. The hugely popular tighthead is still only 31 and has captained Ireland once already, versus Fiji in November 2022.
His provincial teammate and fellow front-rower Dan Sheehan is not yet a part of that group but captained Leinster for the first time against Dragons in November. Sheehan, 25, has spoken about taking on more leadership responsibility for his province this season — but the national-team captaincy would be a serious baptism of fire.
Sheehan does strikes as a generational talent at hooker who, all going well, could have two World Cups left in him at his athletic peak.
Ultimately, though, where captaincy is concerned, he and Furlong fall victim to the reality that men in their positions are often the first players replaced during a game, which makes coaches typically reluctant to appoint a front-row captain.
Farrell would be bucking a trend by doing so, albeit the prospect of Sheehan being a virtually guaranteed starter when fit over the next four years, and cultivating him as a leader in the vain of Keith Wood and Rory Best before him, may appeal to the Ireland head coach.