{"id":551641,"date":"2026-07-15T21:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551641\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:51:15","slug":"ireland-v-new-zealand-jimmy-obrien-to-start-over-jamie-osborne-as-farrell-names-team-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/551641\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland v New Zealand: Jimmy O\u2019Brien to start over Jamie Osborne as Farrell names team \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell<\/a> has made nine changes in personnel to his starting XV for the second game running ahead of Saturday\u2019s finale to the Irish tour and season when they face New Zealand<\/a> in their Eden Park citadel (kick-off 7.10pm local time\/8.10am Irish).<\/p>\n

In doing so, he has largely reverted to the matchday squad which was employed for Ireland<\/a>\u2019s opening Nations Championship win by 33-31 over Australia last Saturday week in Sydney, although with some subtle differences.<\/p>\n

Robert Baloucoune will make a delayed first appearance of the tour after recovering from the tight hamstring which forced his late withdrawal against the Wallabies. He wasn\u2019t risked in last Saturday\u2019s 36-20 victory against Japan.<\/p>\n

Jimmy O\u2019Brien was the beneficiary of Baloucoune\u2019s absence and, having impressed in both games on the right wing, is retained on the left ahead of Jamie Osborne. Osborne had started on the left wing against Australia and at fullback against Japan.<\/p>\n

The other change to the starting XV in Sydney predictably sees Tadhg Beirne picked at blindside, having been on the bench against Australia and captained the side from the secondrow in the win over Japan. <\/p>\n

\"Japan'sJapan’s Jack Cornelsen competes at the lineout with Tadhg Beirne of Ireland. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Sean Jansen is named on the bench with Cian Prendergast missing out altogether. Jansen, the New Zealand-born Connacht number eight, has forced his way into the matchday squad on the back of his big carrying, big tackling, try-scoring, man-of-the-match debut against Japan. His inclusion is the only change from the bench which made a significant impact in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Farrell has also recalled Hugo Keenan, Garry Ringrose, Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy and Josh van der Flier, all of whom had been rested against Japan with an eye on this game, perhaps the ultimate test in Test rugby given New Zealand\u2019s 52-match unbeaten run in Eden Park dating back 32 years.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that the performances of the outside backs and Jansen had given Farrell and co a few selection posers. Yet in nearly every aspect, one can\u2019t help but feel this was largely a preordained selection plan by Farrell and his assistants, with the possible exception of O\u2019Brien nudging ahead of Osborne.<\/p>\n

The latter had, after all, been Farrell\u2019s go-to fullback in the absence of Hugo Keenan since being thrust into the role for both Tests in South Africa two summers ago, and in the opening two games of the Autumn Series.<\/p>\n

Osborne was also an ever-present at fullback in the Six Nations, scoring in each of Ireland\u2019s four successive wins.<\/p>\n

Farrell thinks highly of him, so much so that he also called Osborne up as a late replacement to last summer\u2019s British & Irish Lions squad. At the time, O\u2019Brien would have been well down the pecking order. He did start last summer\u2019s wins away to Georgia and Portugal, but they were his first caps since the 2023 World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand. This season his only appearance for Ireland had been off the bench last November against Japan.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien did finish the season strongly with Leinster, looking more purposeful on the ball and confident, and scored five tries in his last seven games. He was unlucky to miss out on Leinster\u2019s Champions Cup quarter-final, semi-final and final, and especially the URC final, but he has used that frustration to continue his good form in both games on this tour.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Jack Conan and James Ryan. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The trojan James Ryan has played in six of Leinster\u2019s last seven games, both of Ireland\u2019s Nations Championship games and gone 80 in all but one of them. Jack Conan has also had a big workload of late. But those two apart, there\u2019s a strong rationale behind the other three players who will be starting their third successive Test.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien had been in the stands for too much of Leinster\u2019s run-in, and hadn\u2019t originally been picked against Australia. Stuart McCloskey was rusty against Australia after an enforced 10-week absence at the end of the season and needed another game against Japan, while Tom O\u2019Toole requires every outing he can accumulate at loosehead given he had started there all season for Ulster. Besides which, there are three injured international looseheads back home, so it\u2019s not as if Farrell and scrum coach John Fogarty have a truckload of options.<\/p>\n

Only nine of this starting XV and 13 of the match day 23 survive from Ireland\u2019s 26-13 loss to New Zealand in Chicago last November. The All Blacks will be much changed too, not least in having a new head coach, Dave Rennie, for whom this will be just a third game in charge, and a new outhalf in the exciting Ruben Love, orchestrator-in-chief of the Hurricanes charge to the Super Rugby title, for whom this will be a third Test start at outhalf. Farrell already sees Rennie\u2019s imprint. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s the way that Dave Rennie\u2019s teams have played, from the Chiefs days to the Glasgow days, and we\u2019ve seen how he likes to play the game, a fast, ball-in-hand type game, speed of ruck and physicality to go with it, so we know what\u2019s coming up for us. We\u2019ve got to do our homework to be able to stop it, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell would take a win of any hue in its own right, regardless of the World Cup\u2019s proximity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s a year out or five years out, you\u2019d take that at any given season, really, especially in their own backyards, so we\u2019re under no illusions the size of the task.\u201d<\/p>\n

IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (Leinster); Robert Baloucoune (Ulster), Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster), Jimmy O\u2019Brien (Leinster); Sam Prendergast (Leinster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Tom O\u2019Toole (Ulster), Dan Sheehan (Leinster, capt), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster); Joe McCarthy (Leinster), James Ryan (Leinster); Tadhg Beirne (Munster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Jack Conan (Leinster).<\/p>\n

Replacements: R\u00f3nan Kelleher (Leinster), Jeremy Loughman (Munster), Thomas Clarkson (Leinster), Nick Timoney (Ulster), Sean Jansen (Connacht), Craig Casey (Munster), Ciar\u00e1n Frawley (Leinster), Bundee Aki (Connacht).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell has made nine changes in personnel to his starting XV for the second game running ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1451,25747,61,60,1449,87073,22825,194108,86133,43,75706,231300,58217],"class_list":["post-551641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-all-blacks","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-james-ryan","tag-jamie-osborne","tag-jimmy-o-brien","tag-nations-championship","tag-news","tag-robert-baloucoune","tag-sean-jansen","tag-tadhg-beirne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551641","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=551641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}