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France and Ireland will open the tournament in Paris in what has become one of the most keenly anticipated fixtures of the entire tournament.<\/p>\n
The last four Six Nations have been won by these two sides — two apiece — although France haven’t won a Grand Slam in that time.<\/p>\n
Paris always provides a magnificent setting for a Six Nations clash and with both the defending champions and the 2024 winners looking to get off toa flying start, it promises to be an exciting match-up again at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n
From how to watch the opening fixture to all the team news, ESPN brings you everything you need to know ahead of the match.<\/p>\n
France beat Ireland in Dublin on their way to the title last year.\u00a0David Rogers\/Getty ImagesKey details<\/p>\n
Who: France vs. Ireland<\/p>\n
When: Thursday, Feb. 5. Kickoff – 8.10 p.m. GMT, 9.10 p.m<\/p>\n
Where: Stade de France, Paris.<\/p>\n
Officials: Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng).<\/p>\n
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Aus), Jordan Way (Aus).<\/p>\n
Television Match Official: Ian Tempest (Eng).<\/p>\n
Where is France vs. Ireland being broadcast?<\/p>\n
The match will be live on ITV in the UK, RT\u00c9 in Ireland, and France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions in France. BBC Radio 5 Live will have radio commentary.<\/p>\n
ESPN will run a live blog during the game, as well as providing extensive news and feature coverage.<\/p>\n
Why is the Six Nations starting on a Thursday?<\/p>\n
The Six Nations has tended to start on a Friday night in recent years — including in 2025 when France hosted Wales — but this year the opening fixture has shifted forward a day. Why? To avoid a clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
This year’s Winter Olympics is in Milan, and while it actually starts on Wednesday, Feb. 4, its opening ceremony is on Friday, Feb. 6. To maximise TV audience for a game that could well determine this year’s champion, it was decided to move France vs. Ireland to Thursday, Feb. 6.<\/p>\n
While this will be the first time a Six Nations game has kicked off on a Thursday, the tournament has started on that day in its previous guises.<\/p>\n
This exact fixture kicked off the 1948 Five Nations, when Ireland beat France 13-6 on New Year’s Day.<\/p>\n
– Six Nations 2026: Schedule, results, table, squads, news, TV info, more<\/a> Team news<\/p>\n Bench:<\/p>\n Bench:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France and Ireland will open the tournament in Paris in what has become one of the most keenly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-402515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– Ireland’s Bundee Aki banned four games for officials abuse<\/a>
– France prop Uini Atonio suffers career-ending ‘cardiac event’<\/a><\/p>\n Starting XV: Teams will be displayed once available.<\/p>\n
Starting XV: Teams will be displayed once available.<\/p>\n