Irish Rugby

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Ulster's Zac Ward says facing up against Bordeaux-Begles duo Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud, considered two of the best wings in rugby, "definitely excited me".

Bordeaux host Ulster in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup on Sunday and Bielle-Biarrey and Penaud, who both helped to the Six Nations title, are expected to feature.

Bielle-Biarrey was the top try scorer in the Six Nations and was named player of the tournament.

Ward, 26, won his first cap for Ulster in the Pool One match between the sides in December, which Bordeaux won 40-19 in Belfast.

"I want to compete against the best in the business," said Ward, who made the switch from sevens rugby after the Paris Olympics.

"It was my first cap here playing against those two guys. I was a bit nervous beforehand, but a friend of mine said they were just two guys with two arms and two legs, so just to try and think of it like that.

"It's easier said than done but I'll try and do the same this weekend."

'Dream come true'

Bordeaux are heavy favourites to progress against Ulster after Yannick Bru's side finished as top seeds after the pool stages.

After a disappointing first half of the season, Ulster have now won their last three matches in the United Rugby Championship and Ward believes that momentum will help his side in .

"We know going into this weekend that it's a huge ask and a huge task, but we want to give a good of ourselves for 80 minutes," added Ward.

"We showed the last time we played them here, we were ahead after 60 or 65 minutes. If we can carry that through for 80 minutes, then we will be in a nice spot."

After taking the long road to Ulster's first team through Ireland's rugby sevens programme, Ward, who is the son of former back row Andy, says playing for his home province "was always a dream".

"For that now to be a reality is really special.

"It was a dream come true getting my first cap, and now I've got a taste for it I really don't want it to end anytime soon."

Matt Gault
BBC Sport NI Senior Journalist

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In the wake of a disappointing Six Nations, and with most of the senior coaching set-up now on British and Irish Lions duty, this summer's Tests against Georgia and Portugal could prove a crucial bridge to Ireland's next era.

On the coaching side, Ireland are without Andy Farrell, Simon Easterby, Andrew Goodman and John Fogarty, while a sizeable Irish playing contingent is expected to make the Lions squad heading to Australia.

That means Paul O'Connell faces a big job this summer. The former Ireland captain was handed the interim head coach reins following confirmation that Easterby - who filled in for Farrell during the Six Nations - has ed the Lions coaching ticket.

O'Connell has spent the past four years as Ireland's forwards coach, but this is a considerable step-up for the 45-year-old.

Succession planning is key to Ireland's future. Farrell is contracted until the end of the 2027 World Cup. If he leaves after that tournament, the Irish Rugby Football Union [IRFU] will at least know how two of his possible successors in Easterby and O'Connell have fared while leading the team.

O'Connell's remit will be clear: improve morale after a third-place finish in the Six Nations and identify new Test talent, which is a pressing concern given the age profile of the senior squad.

O'Connell will, however, have experienced coaches he knows well alongside him. He played alongside Denis Leamy and Mike Prendergast at Munster and will have Colm Tucker to oversee the scrum.

The input of Prendergast, in particular, will be valuable after he led the Ireland 'A' team against England in February.

Johnny Sexton, who was involved in the Irish coaching set-up during the autumn Tests and Six Nations, was not named as part of O'Connell's team, so it will be interesting to see if the iconic fly-half links up with the squad closer to the Test against Georgia on 5 July.

Regardless of his involvement, though, it will be a big summer for O'Connell and his presumably youthful Ireland squad.

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Interim Ireland head coach Paul O'Connell will have Denis Leamy, Mike Prendergast and Colm Tucker as his coaching team for this summer's Tests in Georgia and Portugal.

O'Connell was confirmed as interim boss last week, with Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby away with the Lions.

Former Ireland back row Leamy has been Munster defence coach since 2022, while Prendergast has been the province's attack coach for the past three seasons and led Ireland 'A' in February's defeat by England.

Tucker is Connacht's scrum coach and also led the team during last weekend's United Rugby Championship loss to Munster in Castlebar, with head coach Pete Wilkins on sick leave.

All three coaches will link up with Ireland at the end of the club season. The squad is due to be announced in mid-June.

Ireland face Georgia in Tbilisi on 5 July (18:00 BST) and Portugal in Lisbon on 12 July (time TBC).

Former Ireland and British and Irish Lions captain O'Connell took over as interim boss after Easterby was appointed as part of Lions head coach Farrell's backroom team.

Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty and attack coach Andrew Goodman are also on Farrell's Lions ticket.

O'Connell said he was "honoured" to accept the position.

"With a busy schedule of international rugby this summer, these two Tests will provide us with further opportunities to assess and develop the competition levels within the squad," added O'Connell.

"I am excited to work with a coaching team who I know well individually and are hugely motivated to deliver success to Ireland and look forward to putting our plans in place over the coming weeks."

Irish Rugby Football Union performance director David Humphreys says it will mark an "important step" in O'Connell's coaching career.

"He will be assisted by Denis, Mike and Cullie who have all been in Ireland camp at different points over the last number of months and their selections is another positive progression in their coaching careers and reasserts the IRFU's commitment to developing a pathway for Irish coaches," added Humphreys.

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Munster flanker Peter O'Mahony could face La Rochelle in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup this weekend after returning from injury.

The Irish province will face the two-time champions at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre on Saturday (17:30 BST), with the French side coached by Munster legend Ronan O'Gara.

O'Mahony missed the side's win over Connacht on Saturday and has not played since his final Test appearance for Ireland in their Six Nations victory against Italy last month.

The 35-year-old has not featured for Munster since their Champions Cup loss to Northampton Saints in January, but a statement from the province said his availability for Saturday will be determined "based on how he gets through the week's training".

Against Connacht, Irish international scrum-half Craig Casey was playing for the first time since knee surgery in December and the 25-year-old came through the game unscathed.

Forwards Oli Jager, Jean Kleyn and Niall Scannell also returned from injury in the inter-provincial derby and are fit to face La Rochelle.

Flanker John Hodnett was forced off with a thigh contusion in Castlebar, however, and is a doubt for the game.

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Ulster wing Robert Baloucoune requires a scan to determine the extent of his latest hamstring injury.

The 27-year-old, who has won four caps for Ireland, made his comeback from 11 months out in the province's United Rugby Championship (URC) win over Stormers at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night.

He scored his side's first try in the comeback victory but was replaced after 47 minutes.

Centre Ben Carson also failed to finish that fixture due to a back complaint and an Ulster statement said that both players "will have scans early this week to further assess the extent of their respective injuries".

Richie Murphy's side travel to face Top 14 side Bordeaux-Begles in the last-16 of the Investec Champions Cup on Sunday.

Centre James Hume will be "monitored through training" in the build-up to that trip after missing the win over Stormers through illness.

Forwards coach Jimmy Duffy saying playing a team of the calibre of Bordeaux, who finished the pool stages as top seeds, "raises your game".

Bordeaux have the Six Nations' top try scorer Louis Bielle-Biarrey in their ranks, along with his fellow internationals Damian Penaud and Yoram Moefana.

"They have world-class talents in the forwards or the backline," said Duffy.

"They are household names in most quarters. They have a brilliant stadium and a brilliant fan base.

"We're going there to compete and it's going to be a big challenge."

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Ireland hooker Ronan Kelleher will be assessed for selection ahead of Leinster's Investec Champions Cup last-16 tie with Harlequins at Croke Park.

Kelleher, 27, has been sidelined with a neck injury and will step up his rehabilitation ahead of the last-16 tie.

Leinster qualified for the knockout stages as the seed with four victories from the Pool stages.

They were pipped to the top spot by Bordeaux, who collected more bonus points and face Ulster on Sunday.

Harlequins were seeded 15th of the 16 teams to qualify for the knockout stages with two victories from their four matches.

Leinster back row Alex Soroka will be assessed as he works through return to play protocols after a concussion, but Will Connors is out after injuring his shoulder in Saturday's narrow win over the Sharks in South Africa.

Jordan Larmour, Paddy McCarthy, Rob Russell and James Culhane are still unavailable for selection.

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Women's Six Nations, Italy v Ireland

Venue: Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma Date: Sunday, 30 March Kick-off: 15:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website & app from 14:45

Ireland coach Scott Bemand says his players are mindful of the "incredible challenge" they will face in Sunday's Women's Six Nations game in Parma against an Italy side who defeated them in last year's championship.

The Irish looked in potential Wooden Spoon territory a year ago after they lost in 27-21 to the Italians in round two at the RDS.

Subsequent wins over Wales and Scotland secured a third-place championship finish that earned qualification for this year's World Cup but Bemand says he and his players have the height of respect for the Italians as they aim for Ireland's first away win in the competition since 2021.

Ireland go into Sunday's game after competing well against in last weekend's opener in Belfast only to eventually lose out 27-15.

"Italy have got a more structured version of themselves these days. It used to be quite fun watching them as in anything could happen," said the Ireland coach.

"Now they've got a little bit more sensible with what they are trying to do. So we know that we're expecting a strong box-kick game and we've been preparing ourselves for that.

"Our aim, as ever, is to get our best game out there and if we do, we'll be alright but the Italians are certainly not going to roll over and make it easy for us."

Ireland followed their third-placed finish in last year's Six Nations with autumn wins over Australia and world champions New Zealand and Bemand feels his players now have a belief that wasn't there when they faced Italy a year ago amid the scar tissue from the 2023 Six Nations when the Irish lost all five of their games under previous coach Greg McWilliams.

"We said it after the game [against Italy]. You lost a game that you should have won and in the previous Six Nations they were losing games that they didn't deserve to win.

"There was a big performance step but almost with not having the permission or the confidence to do it. Now they are a group that think differently."

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Stuart McCloskey joked his team-mates had seemed determined to spoil his 200th Ulster appearance as the Irish province trailed 17-0 after only eight minutes before fighting back to beat the Stormers 38-34 in the United Rugby Championship.

"Tonight we decided to get ourselves in a big hole on my big night, the lads were telling me," laughed the centre when interviewed by BBC Sport NI after the game.

Ulster looked in huge trouble after tries from Evan Roos and Ben Loader gave the Stormers their sizeable lead but the home side fought back to notch six touchdowns as they clinched a third successive win to boost their hopes of achieving a play-offs spot.

"All you can do is look at each other smile and say 'start again'," added the 32-year-old of the predicament Ulster found themselves in.

"There wasn't a great deal said when we went 17-0 down but we composed ourselves well and got ourselves back into the game and obviously a bit of ill-discipline by them helped us.

"I thought some of our attacking play tonight was the best it's been all year."

Next up for Ulster in Sunday week's Investec Champions Cup last-16 contest against an in-form Bordeaux side.

McCloskey, who is contracted with the Irish province until the summer of 2027, knows full well Ulster will go into that game game as rank outsiders but says they can take "a bit of momentum" into that contest after three straight wins.

"We can throw caution to the wind [in Bordeaux] and throw it about because they are meant to be the best team about. I know we can score tries, it's just whether we can sort out some of the defensive stuff," added the centre who became the 11th player to reach 200 Ulster appearances.

McCloskey hailed the display of man of the match Jack Murphy whose performance at fly-half included scoring one of Ulster's tries.

"He has a great brain for it and at the age he is, he's miles ahead of what I was at that age and miles ahead of probably most players of that age," added McCloskey of the 20-year-old, who is a son of Ulster coach Richie Murphy.

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Ulster head coach Richie Murphy praised the "character" of his side in recovering from 17-0 down after just eight minutes to edge out the Stormers 38-34 in a thrilling United Rugby Championship game at Kingspan Stadium.

The Irish province were on level at 17-17 at the break and ended up running in six tries in a bonus-point victory against a South African side reduced to 14 men for much of the second half when skipper Neethling Fouche was sent-off for what was deemed a dangerous challenge on Ulster centre Ben Carson.

"It was an incredible game. I'm absolutely delighted with the win - I thought we showed some character," Murphy told BBC Sport NI after the game.

"Going 17 points down early on, some of it from very good stuff from the Stormers and a couple of mistakes from us, but I thought the lads really rolled their sleeves up and put up an unbelievable performance to get past a very good team.

"At times we've played well in spells in different games this season but we put more of it together tonight."

Murphy believes the spirit of his side shone through as they completed three successive wins for the first time this season.

"I think you could see the hunger within the lads to fight back to 17-17 at half-time and put us into a good place in the second half.

"Five points keeps us in the hunt and looking forward to the next one."

Ulster's next game is their Investec Champions Cup last-16 meeting with Bordeaux-Begles in on Sunday 6 April.

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Connacht and Munster welcome back Irish internationals for the United Rugby Championship interprovincial showdown at MacHale Park on Saturday (14:30 GMT).

The hosts bring in Mack Hansen, Bundee Aki, Finlay Bealham and captain Cian Prendergast for what will be the first time a professional Connacht game is held in County Mayo, and the first time rugby is played at the Castlebar venue in its 95-year history.

The Ireland quartet are among seven Connacht changes from the 43-40 defeat by Ospreys in Wales.

Chay Mullins, Jordan Duggan and Sean Jansen also come into the starting XV.

Munster have three Irish internationals back in their side as Tadhg Beirne, Jack Crowley and Calvin Nash return.

The visitors are also boosted by the return of Oli Jager and Craig Casey from injury as they make five changes from the 28-25 defeat by Glasgow Warriors last weekend.

Munster sit sixth in the standings and three points above 12th-placed Connacht.

Connacht: Hansen; Mullins, Gavin, Aki, Treacy; Ioane, Blade; Duggan, Heffernan, Bealham; Joyce, Murray, Prendergast (capt), Hurley-Langton, Jansen.

Replacements: Tierney-Martin, Buckley, Aungier, Murphy, Boyle, Devine, Hanrahan, Cordero.

Munster: O'Connor; Nash, Farrell, Nankivell, O'Brien; Crowley, Casey; Loughman, Barron, Jager; Wycherley, Beirne (capt); Ahern, Hodnett, Coombes.

Replacements: N Scannell, Wycherley, Archer, Kleyn, Quinn, Murray, R Scannell, Kendellen.

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Ireland head coach Scott Bemand says his side are "in good health" ahead of their Six Nations meeting with Italy in Parma on Sunday.

Bemand's side came close to causing an upset in their opening game of the 2025 tournament in Belfast last weekend but in the end ran out 27-15 losers to .

"We feel like we played a Test match but came through in reasonable health so a full squad to pick from pretty much," said the Ireland coach on Thursday.

"Stacey Flood came back from injury and was available for the first game, but we won't be moving and shaking too much.

"We've a good , the wider squad is competing hard and people have the opportunities to break in.

"The beauty of where we have got this group to over the last 18 months is that we can now tolerate work, can now tolerate big games against some sizeable athletic opposition. And the cost to us physically is, touch wood, fairly low cost at this point."

Wing Beibhinn Parsons and full-back Meabh Deely remain out through injury but both players could return to action later in the tournament.

Bemand explained that his squad have reflected on the mistakes they made against the French and are preparing to give of their best against the Italians.

"We have looked at some of the performance aspects of it and we got quite a lot wrong in the game, as did . The first game of the Six Nations and it's our first game testing ourselves against this kind of opposition. We are coming in with higher standards for ourselves.

"So in that sense we do feel it was a missed opportunity. We got momentum coming from behind. We let them off the hook.

"As a group, we haven't shied away from that. I love the honesty of the girls, they're prepared to meet the challenge."

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Robert Baloucoune's inclusion for the first time this season is one of five Ulster changes from the last-gasp win over Dragons for Friday's United Rugby Championship home game against Stormers (19:35 GMT).

After a long recovery from a hamstring injury, Ireland wing Baloucoune is named at right wing as Stuart Moore drops out of the backline with Michael Lowry switching to full-back.

John Cooney, who will depart Ulster at the end of the season to French club Brive, starts at scrum-half with Nathan Doak relegated to the bench.

Fit-again Andrew Warwick replaces Callum Reid at loose-head prop with the other forwards changes the inclusion of lock Kieran Treadwell and back row Matty Rea in place of Matthew Dalton and James McNabney.

Rea's selection means that David McCann switches from flanker to number eight.

Reid and McNabney are named on a replacements bench that includes fit-again hooker Tom Stewart.

Ireland centre Stuart McCloskey will be making his 200th Ulster appearance in Friday's contest.

Currently unavailable for selection due to injury are Ethan McIlroy (knee), Ben Moxham (knee), Werner Kok (hamstring), Cormac Izuchukwu (ankle), Jake Flannery (knee), Iain Henderson (hamstring), Eric O'Sullivan (knee), Jude Postlethwaite (thumb), Sean Reffell (calf) and Lorcan McLoughlin (knee).

Friday's contest is crucial to ninth-placed Ulster's hopes of staying in contention for the play-offs as they face a Stormers side who currently occupy the eighth and final qualification spot, one point ahead of the Irish province.

Ulster: Lowry; Baloucoune, Hume, McCloskey, Stockdale; Murphy, Cooney; Warwick, Herring, O'Toole; O'Connor (capt), Treadwell; Matty Rea, Timoney, McCann.

Replacements: Stewart, Reid, Wilson, Sheridan, McNabney, Doak, Carson, Ward.