Ireland
Rugby history 101: The IRFU was founded in 1875, an amalgamation of the Irish Football Union and the Northern football union, the latter had jurisdiction over the clubs in Belfast. It took Ireland six years — their first home match took place at the Leinster sports club, Observatory Lane in Rathmines where they lost to England — before they won their first international in 1881 beating Scotland in Ormeau. Ireland won the Home Nations Championship in 1896 and 1899. In 1905 Ireland hosted the first all-ticket rugby international when New Zealand visited Dublin for the first time. The national team have won four Grand Slams, 1948, 2009, 2018 and 2022, 13 Triple Crowns and 15 outright Home/Five/Six Nations Championships. Ireland’s furthest progression at a Rugby World Cup is the quarter-final stage and only twice have they failed to do so, when losing a quarter-final play-off to Argentina in Lens (1999) and when they failed to get out of the pool at the 2007 tournament in France.
Coach: Andy Farrell. The 48-year-old played 370 games for Wigan scoring 3,135 points in a 13-year career at the club during which he won six leagues and four Challenge Cups and won 34 Great Britain caps and a further 11 for England. He was one of the outstanding players of his generation. He was 17 when he appeared in his first Challenge Cup final and 18 when first capped. Farrell switched codes to union and played for Saracens from 2005 to 2009 during which time he won eight caps for England, a run that incorporated the 2007 Rugby World Cup. His coaching career began at Saracens (2010) before he joined Stuart Lancaster’s England coaching team (2012) and in 2016 he joined Joe Schmidt’s Ireland set-up as defence coach. When the New Zealander departed Farrell took over as Ireland head coach, guiding them to the number one world ranking slot, a historic first Test series win in New Zealand (2022) and a Grand Slam (2023). He is the father of England captain Owen.
Captain: Johnny Sexton. A product of Bective Rangers minis and St Mary’s College school, he played age-grade rugby for Ireland Schools and Under-21 teams. He came on for the injured Felipe Contepomi in the Heineken Cup semi-final win over Munster at Croke Park and was outhalf in Leinster’s four European Champions Cup wins. His career at Leinster was interrupted by a two-season spell at Racing 92 (2013-2015). He won his first cap for Ireland against Fiji at the RDS in 2009 and since then has gone on to secure 113 caps, win two Grand Slams, one as captain and played a pivotal role in the Test matches, starting five of six, on the 2013 and 2017 Lions tours to Australia and New Zealand. He won the World player of the year in 2018 and few will forget his drop goal in Paris to beat France that kickstarted Ireland’s Grand Slam in that year’s Six Nations. He broke Ronan O’Gara’s Six Nations points-scoring record this year in leading Ireland to a second Grand Slam.
World Cup record: 1987 (quarter-finals); 1991 (quarter-finals); 1995 (quarter-finals); 1999 (quarter-final play-off); 2003 (quarter-finals); 2007 (Pool stage); 2011 (quarter-finals); 2015 (quarter-finals); 2019 (quarter-finals); overall: P 40, W 24, D 0, L 16.
Players to watch: The spine of the team has been so influential, starting with Hugo Keenan at fullback, right through to Caelan Doris whether he plays at six or eight. James Ryan has been hugely influential now that he’s back to his best form, Jamison Gibson-Park and Tadhg Beirne too, while Dan Sheehan is probably the best hooker in world rugby. Johnny Sexton though remains the lightning rod that sparks the team to life.
Best World Cup moment: Gordon Hamilton’s try against Australia at Lansdowne Road in 1991 was a bittersweet moment as the Wallabies came back to win the quarter-final with the last play of the game. Ireland exacted a measure of revenge when they beat the Aussies in the 2011 pool match. John Sexton kicked two penalties and a drop goal, Ronan O’Gara two penalties, Stephen Ferris famously manhandled Will Genia, and the Irish frontrow of Cian Healy, Rory Best and Mike Ross were pivotal to the victory.
Trivia: The late, great Con Houlihan came up with many wonderful lines during his time as Ireland’s premier sportswriter but certainly one of the most memorable was “God Save the Rose of Tralee.” It was a reference to the anthem that was played ahead of Ireland matches at the 1987 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and Australia. In times past the Irish team stood for Amhrán na bhFiann before matches in Dublin and God Save the Queen for games in Ravenhill. Away from Irish shores protocol dictated that no anthem was played until Ireland’s Call arrived. The tournament came a month after an IRA bomb killed Lord Justice Maurice Gibson and injured three Ireland players, Phillip Rainey, Davy Irwin and Nigel Carr. Prop Phil Orr had a James Last tape and the players reluctantly agreed that the Rose of Tralee would be played as an anthem before the matches.
Ireland (all times, Irish)
Saturday, September 9th: v Romania, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2.30)
Saturday, Sept 16th: v Tonga, Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes (8.0)
Saturday Sept 23rd: v South Africa, Stade de France, Paris (8.0)
Saturday, Oct 7th: v Scotland, Stade de France, Paris (8.0)
Romania
Nickname: Stejarii (The Oaks)
Rugby history 101: The sport began in Romania when students studying at university in Paris returned home with rugby balls in 1913. An early league consisted of 17 teams from Bucharest; the first club from outside the capital was an aircraft factory team in Brasov (1939), eight years after the formation of the Romanian Rugby Federation (FRR). Romania won a bronze medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics, one of three teams that entered they lost to France and the eventual gold medallists, USA. Romania have beaten Wales, Scotland, Italy and France over the years in Test matches while they drew 13-13 with Ireland in a non-cap international (1980) at Lansdowne Road.
Coach: Eugen Apjok took over from former England international flanker Andy Robinson who had previous international coaching experience with England and Scotland who resigned in December last year after leading them to just two wins in eight matches in 2022. Apjok is a former Romanian international outhalf and said of his new brief: “I accepted the proposal with the feeling that I can carry on the work of my predecessor whom I want to thank in this way for all that he has done for the national team, so that in the time remaining until the World Cup we can build around a common vision that to reflect as faithfully as possible the culture and spirit of Romanian rugby.”
Captain: Mihai Macovei lines out with French Pro D2 side Colomiers. He played in the 2011 World Cup, then took over the captaincy from Marius Tincu for the 2015 tournament and has led his country on 68 occasions and the flanker cum number eight became the fifth Romanian centurion when winning his 100th cap against Samoa last November.
World Cup record: 1987 (Pool). 1991 (Pool). 1995 (Pool). 1999 (Pool). 2003 (Pool). 2007 (Pool). 2011 (Pool). 2015 (Pool). 2019 (Disqualified for fielding ineligible player). Overall: P 28, W 6, D 0, L 22.
Have we met before? Ireland first met Romania in a World Cup match in 1999, when tries from Conor O’Shea (2), Andy Ward, the late Tom Tierney and Dion O’Cuinneagain helped Ireland to a 44-14 win at Lansdowne Road. It was the only Test match in 133 Ireland caps in which Brian O’Driscoll started on the bench. He came on and scored his first drop goal for Ireland. Gordon D’Arcy also came on that day as the starting midfield pairing was Mike Mullins and Johnny Bell. Ireland beat Romania in the 2003 and 2015 tournaments too.
Players to watch: The majority of the current Romanian squad play their rugby either domestically or in the lower divisions in France but they also have a core of foreign-born players a group that contains five French-born players Thomas Cretu, flanker Alexander Dinu, centre Taylor Gontineac, wing Nicolas Onotu and Atila Septar, a 6ft 5in wing who plays with Toulon, a South African secondrow in Johan van Heerden, New Zealander Hinkley Vaovasa and American Robert Irimescu.
Best World Cup moment: Romania have managed just six victories across their participation in World Cups and most of those have been by very narrow margins, Zimbabwe (21-10), Fiji (17-15), USA (27-25), Portugal (14-10) and Canada (17-15). Their most comprehensive win was against Namibia in 2003, a 37-7 win masterminded by their celebrated French coach Bernard Charreyre who admitted: “I’m very happy with the players. It is a team that needs encouragement, and it can continue to improve.”
Trivia: Having been thrown out of the 2019 Rugby World Cup for fielding an ineligible player in the qualification matches, the irony would not have been lost on Romania that they owe their place in this year’s tournament to the fact that Spain were disqualified for a similar rule infraction with the Romanians going straight through to the finals as a result.
Fixtures (all times Irish)
Saturday, September 9th: v Ireland, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2.30)
Sunday, Sept 17th: v South Africa, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2.0)
Saturday, Sept 30th: v Scotland, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille (8.0)
Sunday, Oct 8th: v Tonga, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille (4.45)
Scotland
Rugby history 101: Scotland featured in the first ever rugby international when a challenge was issued via a notice in the Scotsman and Bell’s Life newspaper in London to their English counterparts. The match took place at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh on Monday, March 27th, 1871, and the Scots won 1-0. Scotland marked the opening of Murrayfield stadium in 1925 by winning a Grand Slam, the first of three (1984, 1990) to go with 10 Triple Crowns and 14 outright wins in the Home/Five/Six Nations Championship. In March 1975, 104,000 crammed into Murrayfield to watch the Scots beat Wales 12-10, a world record attendance that lasted until 2000 when 109,000 turned up at the Sydney Olympic stadium to watch the Wallabies play New Zealand. They won the last Five Nations tournament in 1999.
Coach: Gregor Townsend. The Galashiels native enjoyed a brilliant playing career as a ball playing out half or centre, won 82 caps for Scotland, played two Tests in the Lions series win over Springboks (1997) and played clubs in Scotland, Australia, England, France and South Africa before taking over as player-coach at the now defunct Border Reivers. In 2009 he was appointed backs’ coach to the Scotland side, attack coach the following season but in 2012 decided to take over as head coach with Glasgow Warriors where he won a Pro12 title (2015). In May 2017 he was announced as Scotland’s new head coach and despite not making it out of the pool at the 2019 World Cup his reign has been largely successful in reviving Scottish fortunes with several famous wins over England, and others against Australia, France and South Africa. He has yet to coach Scotland to a victory over Ireland in eight attempts.
Captain: Jamie Ritchie. He captained Scotland at underage level, made his Scotland debut against Canada (2018) as a 21-year-old and in 2021 signed “the longest contract in the history of Edinburgh Rugby”, the length of which was not clarified. Teak tough and an excellent athlete, he is very much a leader by example. He won a silver medal while a teenager at the British Judo Championships.
World Cup record: 1987 (quarter-finals); 1991 (semi-finals, fourth); 1995 (quarter-finals); 1999 (quarter-finals); 2003 (quarter-finals); 2007 (quarter-finals); 2011 (Pool stage); 2015 (quarter-finals); 2019 (Pool stage); overall: P 42, W 24, D 1, L 17.
Have we met before? Yes, on two occasions. The first was a pool match at Murrayfield in the 1991 World Cup, a game Scotland won easier than the 24-15 final scoreline suggested but a match that’s best remembered from an Irish perspective for a late, high, stiff-arm tackle by former and Lions captain Finlay Calder that nearly decapitated Ireland fullback Jim Staples. The second was in Yokohama four years ago when Joe Schmidt’s Ireland cruised to a 27-3 win.
Players to watch: The South African-born Duhan van der Merwe is one of the best-attacking players in rugby as he showed for the Lions and Scotland, the most recent example of a brilliant individual try against England at Twickenham in the recent Six Nations Championship. Strong, quick and powerful, he is a formidable opponent.
Best World Cup moment: It’s probably their first match in the tournament, a 1987 pool opener against a France side that would go on to reach the final. Scotland drew 20-20 with wing Matt Duncan scoring a late try to grab a share of the spoils. Serge Blanco, Phillipe Sella and Pierre Berbizier scored the French tries while flanker John Jeffrey also crossed the French line.
Trivia: Scotland’s heart-breaking 35-34 defeat to Australia in 2015 included a last-minute penalty incorrectly awarded by referee Craig Joubert which prompted World Rugby to come out in the aftermath and confirm that the official had been wrong to do so, unprecedented clarification.
Fixtures (all times Irish)
Sunday, September 10th: v South Africa, Stade Velodrome, Marseille (4.45)
Sunday, Sept 24th: v Tonga, Stade de Nice, Nice (4.45)
Saturday Sept 30th: v Romania, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille (8.0)
Saturday, Oct 7th: v Ireland, Stade de France, Paris (8.0)
South Africa
Nickname: Springboks
Rugby history 101: Canon George Ogilvie, the headmaster of Diocesan College in Cape Town introduced “Winchester football”, which permitted the use of hands and was seen as the forerunner of rugby in South Africa The first rugby match in 1861 pitted the “Officers of the Army v the Gentlemen of the Civil Service” and ended in a 0-0 draw. A British Isles team — there were no representatives from Ireland — travelled and won all 20 matches, conceding just a single point. Notable Springbok landmarks along the way saw them win a series against a British Isles squad in 1903 and they would not lose a Test series, home or away until 1956, when New Zealand beat the Springboks for the first time. They had racked up three Grand Slam-winning tours in Europe by the mid-1950s. Despite the apartheid regime and the Gleneagles agreement it wasn’t until 1981 that the International Board banned South Africa from international rugby, and it was 11 years before they were reinstated.
Coach: Jacques Nienaber. Born in Kimberley, he grew up in Bloemfontein and attended the famous Grey College, where he played for the firsts as a centre. He qualified as a physiotherapist and worked in that role with the Free State Cheetahs before taking over as their strength and conditioning coach. He first hooked up with Rassie Erasmus in 2005 and with the latter as head coach, the club won the Currie Cup for only the second time in their history. He followed Erasmus to the Stormers (2008) moving to the role of defence coach, which he subsequently filled at Munster and then the South Africa team that won the 2019 World Cup. He was appointed head coach of the Springboks in January 2020 and once the World Cup finishes in France will join Leinster.
Captain: Siya Kolisi. The brilliant flanker became the third Springbok-winning captain at the World Cup in Japan (2019) following Francois Pienaar (1995) and John Smit (2007) and doing so with a grace and charm that has made him such an eminently likeable and charismatic figure on and off the pitch as well as a gifted rugby player. He shares an alma mater, Grey High School, with Ireland backs’ coach Mike Catt.
World Cup record: 1987 (did not play [DNP]); 1991 (DNP); 1995 (champions); 1999 (semi-finals, third); 2003 (semi-finals); 2007 (champions); 2011 (quarter-finals); 2015 (semi-finals, third); 2019 (champions); overall: P 43, W 36, D 0, L 7.
Have we met before? No, not in a World Cup but as an aside, the first international between Ireland and South Africa took place at the Balmoral Showgrounds in Belfast (1906), a game won 15-12 by the tourists.
Players to watch: Spoiled for choice to be honest but there is something about watching Cheslin Kolbe in full flow that not only energises a stadium but offers a reminder that there is still room for “the great little ‘un”.
Best World Cup moment: Nelson Mandela presenting the Webb Ellis Cup to Francois Pienaar after the Springboks had beaten New Zealand 15-12 after extra time in the final at Ellis Park thanks to a Joel Stransky drop goal is an iconic moment in world history, never mind a sporting or rugby one.
Trivia: On May 30th, 1981, the 31-year-old Errol Tobias became the first black player to play for the Springboks when he played in a 23-15 victory over Ireland at Newlands and would also play in a 12-10 second test win in Durban over the same opposition. He defied opposition from the black and white communities to take the field. He said: “We had no say in politics. We didn’t even have a vote, so all I knew at that stage was to play rugby. My goal was to show the country and the rest of the world that we had black players who were equally as good, if not better, than the whites, and that if you are good enough you should play.” He played six Test matches for the ‘Boks and was never on the losing side.
Fixtures (all times Irish)
Sunday, September 10th: v Scotland, Stade Velodrome, Marseille (4.45)
Sunday, Sept 17th: v Romania, Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2.0)
Saturday, Sept 23rd: v Ireland, Stade de France, Paris (8.0)
Sunday, Oct 1st: v Tonga, Stade Velodrome, Marseille (8.0)
Tonga
Nickname: Ikale Tahi (The Sea Eagles)
Rugby history 101: Rugby was brought to Tonga by sailors and missionaries and the Tongan RFU was founded in 1923. Among their notable victories included their first ever Test match against Fiji in 1924 in the capital Nuku’alofa, they beat the New Zealand Maori (1969), Australia at Ballymore (1973), France (1999), Scotland at Pittodrie stadium in 2012 and Italy (2016). Their pre-game challenge is known as the Sipi Tau and was imported from the Pacific Ocean atoll, Wallis Island.
Coach: Toutai Kefu, the 49-year-old, Australia-born World Cup winner with the Wallabies in 1999, was an outstanding young player and took over at number eight from another player of Tongan descent Willie Ofahengaue. After the World Cup success, he helped Australia to their first Tri Nations title (2000) and the third Bledisloe Cup win in succession, another first. He was part of the Wallaby team that beat the British & Irish Lions in the 2001 Test series. He took over as Tongan coach in 2016, having been an assistant in 2011 and interim head coach in 2012. In August 2021 three people broke into his home in Brisbane and in the ensuing brawl Kefu was stabbed in the liver and abdomen before managing, with help from his 15-year-old son, to fight them off.
Captain: TBC
World Cup record: 1987 (Pool); 1991 (did not qualify); 1995 (Pool); 1999 (Pool); 2003 (Pool); 2007 (Pool); 2011 (Pool); 2015 (Pool); 2019 (Pool). Overall: P 29, W 8, D 0, L 21.
Have we met before? Tonga played Ireland in the first World Cup in 1987 in the final pool match, a game which Ireland won 32-9. Brendan Mullin crossed for a hat-trick of tries, fullback Hugo McNeill scored two, while Tony Ward kicked two penalties and three conversions. Tongan outhalf Asa Amone kicked three penalties.
Players to watch: The controversial former Wallaby Israel Folau and a quartet of ex-All Blacks in Munster’s URC winning centre Malakai Fekitoa, Vaea Fifita, George Moala and one-time Ulster fullback Charles Piutau offer an example of the players available to Tonga following World Rugby’s decisions to change eligibility laws.
Best World Cup moment: They shocked France in the 2011 tournament, winning 19-14 in Wellington but it wasn’t enough to see them progress through to the knockout stages. A try from Sukanaivalu Hufanga and four penalties and a conversion from Kurt Morath. A late try from French wing Vincent Clerc rescued a losing bonus point which enabled his side to progress in the tournament.
Trivia: Ireland’s only other Test against Tonga was part of a three-match tour in 2003 that included a defeat to Australia in the Subiaco Oval in Perth and a victory over Samoa in Apia. Eddie O’Sullivan’s tourists beat Tonga 40-19 in Nuku’alofa with Guy Easterby and John Kelly crossed for two tries apiece while the other notable moment was when Tonga’s Viliami Ma’asi was sent off for stamping on the head of Eric Miller.
Fixtures (all times Irish)
Saturday, September 16th: v Ireland, Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes (8.0)
Sunday, Sept 24th: v Scotland, Stade de Nice, Nice (4.45)
Sunday, October 1st: v South Africa, Stade Velodrome, Marseille (8.0)
Sunday, October 8th: v Romania, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille (4.45)
