{"id":693972,"date":"2026-07-16T01:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693972\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:24:12","slug":"new-zealand-vs-ireland-robert-baloucoune-starts-as-irish-recall-key-men-for-nations-championship-tie-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693972\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand vs Ireland: Robert Baloucoune starts as Irish recall key men for Nations Championship tie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Having selected four debutants in an experimental squad against Japan last week, Farrell has picked a side loaded with experience &#8211; with the starting XV boasting a combined 711 caps &#8211; for the trip to Eden Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hugo Keenan, outstanding against Australia, returns at full-back with the versatile O&#8217;Brien shifting wings to the left to accommodate Baloucoune&#8217;s return. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jamie Osborne and Jacob Stockdale, who started on the left wing against Australia and Japan, are not included in the matchday squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Garry Ringrose partners McCloskey in midfield as Robbie Henshaw drops out, while Prendergast and Jamison Gibson-Park renew their half-back pairing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the pack, O&#8217;Toole makes his fifth successive Test start at loose-head prop stretching back to the Six Nations, with three-time British and Irish Lion tight-head Furlong and hooker Sheehan restored to the front row. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Joe McCarthy is reinstalled in the second row alongside Ryan, meaning Beirne &#8211; who captained Ireland for the first time last week &#8211; moves to blind-side flanker. Open-side Josh van der Flier and number eight Conan complete the back row. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Thirteen of the 15 selected started against Australia, with Baloucoune and Beirne the only changes as Osborne and Cian Prendergast miss out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having selected four debutants in an experimental squad against Japan last week, Farrell has picked a side loaded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-693972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693972","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=693972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}