{"id":750615,"date":"2026-06-21T10:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750615\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:18:11","slug":"andy-farrell-forced-to-make-changes-as-key-ireland-duo-out-of-nations-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750615\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell forced to make changes as key Ireland duo out of Nations Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Ireland captain Caelan Doris has been ruled out of this summer\u2019s Nations Championship Southern Series following his side\u2019s United Rugby Championship victory on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

The powerful back-rower was removed from the field with a foot injury just six minutes into the URC final against the Bulls, and it has since been confirmed that the injury is more severe than initially hoped.<\/p>\n

Winger Tommy O\u2019Brien also sustained damage to his ankle during the match when he landed awkwardly after competing for a kick.\u00a0He was replaced by\u00a0Garry Ringrose<\/a>\u00a0just before half-time, which proved to be his final action for quite some time, as he\u2019s also set to miss the summer series.<\/p>\n

A statement released by the Irish Rugby Football Union reads: \u2018The Ireland<\/a> squad will depart for Sydney on Monday ahead of the Nations Championship Southern Series and there have been two enforced changes to the squad following Leinster\u2019s URC final victory on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain Caelan Doris (foot) and Tommy O\u2019Brien (groin) have been ruled out of the matches against Australia (Saturday, 4 July), Japan (Saturday, 11 July) and New Zealand (Saturday, 18 July).<\/p>\n

\u2018They have been replaced by Ulster\u2019s uncapped duo Bryn Ward and Zac Ward.<\/p>\n

\u2018Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan will lead the three-match tour.\u2019<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Northampton v Exeter: Five takeaways as PREM Rugby Final delivers much-needed \u2018riposte\u2019 while Saints stalwart gets \u2018fairytale\u2019 ending<\/a><\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s biggest fan<\/p>\n

Despite not being able to play this summer, there\u2019s no doubt that Doris<\/a> will remain Ireland\u2019s biggest supporter \u2013 a role which he fulfilled to the maximum during Leinster\u2019s recent title win.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelighted for the group, the lads leaving, but also for the coaching staff,\u201d the 28-year-old told the Leinster website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effort that they\u2019ve put in, Leo [Cullen], in particular, is Leinster through and through, and wants the best for the group and has desired this more than anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot for himself, but for the group and the collective. I\u2019m glad we were able to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was also full of praise for his fellow countrymen, adding: \u201cI think some of our backs stepped up massively, like\u00a0Hugo [Keenan] and Sammy [Prendergast], probably are the two at the forefront of that. I thought they were class today.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Northampton player ratings: Henry Pollock haters humbled as \u2018ferocious\u2019 star delivers \u2018trademark\u2019 performance and bench provides \u2018bulletproof\u2019 defence<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland captain Caelan Doris has been ruled out of this summer\u2019s Nations Championship Southern Series following his side\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,26779,6265,44,760,85,134441],"class_list":["post-750615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-ireland","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}