{"id":531940,"date":"2026-07-04T00:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531940\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T00:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T00:08:09","slug":"australia-v-ireland-wounded-wallabies-to-unleash-unbelievable-centre-pairing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531940\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia v Ireland: Wounded Wallabies to unleash \u2018unbelievable\u2019 centre pairing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nations Championship, Round 1: Australia v Ireland, Allianz Stadium, Sydney, Saturday, 11.10am Irish time \u2013 Live on Virgin Media One, ITV<\/p>\n

Everywhere you go around Sydney there\u2019s no doubting the identity of the number-one show in town. It isn\u2019t rugby union, nor is it even rugby league, albeit that may change with next Wednesday\u2019s State of Origin decider in Brisbane. Instead, for once, it\u2019s the golden replica jerseys of the Socceroos.<\/p>\n

Much like back in Ireland, the smattering of replica jerseys from elsewhere, notably Argentina and Brazil, indicate who is playing on a given day in the World Cup. But the Friday-night swathe of golden Socceroos tops were a pointer as to how many intended staying up \u2013 as well as getting up \u2013 for the 4am local kick-off time when Australia played Egypt in their round-of-32 World Cup<\/a> tie in Dallas.<\/p>\n

But in a country that draws much of its national identity from sport, the Wallabies hope to feed off the patriotic fever that has gripped Australia for their opening Nations Championship game against Ireland<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe love it. You see what the support for the Socceroos has been over the last few weeks,\u201d said Wallabies captain Harry Wilson the day before leading his team against Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the whole country getting behind it. Everyone just going to pubs and watching it, and it\u2019s a really cool time when you see your whole nation get behind the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really big day of sport tomorrow in Australia. You\u2019ve got the Socceroos, you\u2019ve got the Demon (Alex de Minaur) at Wimbledon, and then with us. It\u2019s an exciting day for Australian sport and hopefully it\u2019s a really good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

After seven losses from their last eight Tests in 2025, culminating in a winless end-of-year tour of Europe featuring a 46-19 defeat to Ireland<\/a>, the Wallabies are mustard keen to win back wavering fans ahead of hosting next year\u2019s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

Although Ireland have enjoyed an unprecedented run of five wins in this fixture, the last three have been in Dublin<\/a>. Whatever about their end-of-year form, Australian sides are different beasts on home soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery, very tough,\u201d is how Garry Ringrose views this game, not least when he will look directly across the pitch. \u201cTheir centre partnership with [Len] Ikitau and Joseph Suaalii have been unbelievable \u2013 their ability to play at the line and through the line, as well as play to space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, seeing some things they do, how tight and flat their attack is can sit you down and they\u2019ll pull out the back, or the opposite. If you guess, they\u2019ll play through you, so unbelievably challenging from those two in terms of ball-in-hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, the back three are pretty lethal as well in terms of the pace out wide, so plenty of challenges to get our heads around.\u201d<\/p>\n

New competition or not, this end-of-season trek has, as Ringrose put it, something special about it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s that extra bit of coming down to the Southern Hemisphere to play Australia and in their backyard and then Japan and the challenge in Auckland. It doesn\u2019t get much bigger than that, so it is properly special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia: Jock Campbell (Queensland Reds); Max Jorgensen (NSW Waratahs), Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii (NSW Waratahs), Len Ikitau (NSW Waratahs), Dylan Pietsch (Western Force); Carter Gordon (Queensland Reds), Ryan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies); Angus Bell (NSW Waratahs), Josh Nasser (Queensland Reds), Allan Alaalatoa (ACT Brumbies), Jeremy Williams (Western Force), Josh Canham (Queensland Reds), Rob Valetini (ACT Brumbies), Fraser McReight (Queensland Reds), Harry Wilson (Queensland Reds, capt). Replacements: Brandon Paenga-Amosa (Western Force), James Slipper (ACT Brumbies), Taniela Tupou (Racing 92), Lachlan Shaw (ACT Brumbies), Tom Hooper (Exeter Chiefs), Tate McDermott (Queensland Reds), Ben Donaldson (Western Force), Tom Wright (ACT Brumbies).<\/p>\n

Ireland: Hugo Keenan (UCD\/Leinster); Robert Baloucoune (Enniskillen\/Ulster), Garry Ringrose (UCD\/Leinster), Stuart McCloskey (Bangor\/Ulster), Jamie Osborne (Naas\/Leinster); Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne\/Leinster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Tom O\u2019Toole (Ballynahinch\/Ulster), Dan Sheehan (Lansdowne\/Leinster, capt), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf\/Leinster), Joe McCarthy (Dublin University\/Leinster), James Ryan (UCD\/Leinster), Cian Prendergast (UCD\/Connacht), Josh van der Flier (UCD\/Leinster), Jack Conan (Old Belvedere\/Leinster). Replacements: R\u00f3nan Kelleher (Lansdowne\/Leinster), Jeremy Loughman (Garryowen\/Munster), Thomas Clarkson (Blackrock College\/Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne\/Munster), Nick Timoney (Queen\u2019s University\/Ulster), Craig Casey (Shannon\/Munster), Ciar\u00e1n Frawley (UCD\/Leinster), Bundee Aki (Galwegians\/Connacht).<\/p>\n

Referee: Ben O\u2019Keeffe (NZR) <\/p>\n

Forecast: Ireland to win.<\/p>\n

Join our Irish Times Rugby WhatsApp community<\/p>\n

\"GetGet the best of our writing in the Irish Times rugby community (\u00a9INPHO\/Henry Simpson\/\u00a9INPHO\/Henry Simpson) <\/p>\n

Join our Irish Times Rugby WhatsApp community and get our best rugby writing sent directly to your messages inbox. <\/p>\n

From provincial news to coverage of Ireland\u2019s inaugural Nations Championship campaign, you won\u2019t miss an update. Join here: https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/DaV5S7cDxWF0xDDILjarcw<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nations Championship, Round 1: Australia v Ireland, Allianz Stadium, Sydney, Saturday, 11.10am Irish time \u2013 Live on Virgin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[83302,61,60,1449,86133,43,53328],"class_list":["post-531940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-garry-ringrose","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-nations-championship","tag-news","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531940","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=531940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}