{"id":325423,"date":"2026-03-02T19:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/325423\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:50:08","slug":"outhalf-sam-costelow-ruled-out-of-wales-six-nations-clash-against-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/325423\/","title":{"rendered":"Outhalf Sam Costelow ruled out of Wales\u2019 Six Nations clash against Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales<\/a> outhalf Sam Costelow has been ruled out of Friday\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> match against Ireland<\/a> in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Costelow has not recovered from an ankle injury he sustained in the defeat to Scotland but could return in time for his country\u2019s final match of the tournament against Italy.<\/p>\n

Costelow\u2019s absence could mean a swift return to the starting line-up for Dan Edwards, who was dropped against Scotland after playing in the previous seven matches.<\/p>\n

Jarrod Evans is also an option and Wales\u2019 attack coach Matt Sherratt praised the level of competition between his side\u2019s current group of number 10s.<\/p>\n

Sherratt told a press conference: \u201cThere\u2019s a real tussle going on with the 10s at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cDan [Edwards] was starting in the autumn and started the Six Nations. Sam has trained the house down and deserved that start.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the two remaining for this week now to fight it out to start at the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ben Earl insisted England<\/a> have a \u201cglint in their eye\u201d following a clear-the-air meeting in which players put their hands up to underperforming against Scotland and Ireland.<\/p>\n

Senior players gathered last Wednesday to pick apart the reasons for the successive emphatic losses which removed the team from title contention with two rounds still to play.<\/p>\n

Italy in Rome are the next assignment and Earl, who will win his 50th cap at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, believes England are ready to emerge from the ruins of another disappointing championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the weeks where boys have a little glint in their eye. They mean business,\u201d the British and Irish Lions backrow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at some of the big guys in our squad and go \u2018something good is coming\u2019. We\u2019re all hoping that is going to materialise on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s come from within. If we\u2019re being honest, there\u2019s been some challenge from within the playing group. A few of us had a meeting last Wednesday and we\u2019ve stripped it bare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in the squad who don\u2019t feel like they\u2019ve pulled their weight or performed well enough. Some people have come forward and said they need to be a lot better at this or have been a bit off on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get that out there, it\u2019s about how you move forward. There\u2019s no point sulking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully it\u2019s something we can look back on again when we play more big games over the next 18 months and we can say \u2018I won\u2019t forget those conversations\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s a turning point and I don\u2019t want to downplay it. But it\u2019s another big moment on our journey \u2013 what\u2019s happened over the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team has always performed well when it\u2019s been challenged from within and from outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the result comes on Saturday or not is kind of indifferent for us, it\u2019s about the feeling within the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

England head coach Steve Borthwick is expected to ring the changes when he names his team for the Stadio Olimpico showdown on Tuesday afternoon with the backline in particular facing a significant overhaul, including the selection of a new-look midfield trio.<\/p>\n

Outhalf Fin Smith was unable to train on Monday because of illness and secondrow Ollie Chessum sat out the session for loading reasons.<\/p>\n

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Find the channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales outhalf Sam Costelow has been ruled out of Friday\u2019s Six Nations match against Ireland in Dublin. Costelow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1449,43,15551,92456],"class_list":["post-325423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations","tag-wales-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}