A formidable pack with some razzle-dazzle on top and an all-court game to delight a full house under the lights at a raucous Stade de France.
Andy Farrell’s description of the challenge facing his makeshift Ireland team on this opening night of the 2026 Guinness Six Nations could be enough to send shivers down the spine inside the camp. But the head coach wants his players to lean into and disrupt Antoine Dupont and his defending champions on Thursday night.
The odds are stacked against an Ireland side depleted by injuries and lacking experience in key positions, but it would be remiss of those handed the opportunity by Farrell to fill the breach not to grab their chance and play without any inhibition.
If they can do it in unison and shake off the self-imposed problems that undermined their Autumn Nations Series tests against both New Zealand and South Africa last November, then Ireland can make this round one fixture a contest.
Allow France any sort of early access through poor discipline or inaccuracies and it could be a very long night at the outset of what will become a difficult campaign, the like of which Irish supporters have not witnessed for quite some time.
Farrell needs his side to hit the ground running at Stade de France and he is confident in the team he has named to do that, while recognising the improvements that need to be made from the previous Test window.
“We pride ourselves on working really hard,” Farrell said. “It’s very taxing, not just physically but mentally as well because it matters to be prepared for the first game, and the first game really matters as does every other game. We pride ourselves on our attitude to get up to speed as soon as we can.
“We want to be better as a whole, as a team,” he continued. “We want to be more clinical with how we go about our business, taking points when we get the opportunity in the right parts of the field and, as a whole, being better. Our strength has to be the collective and the lads are certainly aware of that.”
The Ireland head coach has also made his players aware of the areas they can be expect to be tested inside one of the noisiest stadia in world rugby.
That France boss Fabien Galthie has felt able to omit three of his most experienced and capable players says much about his confidence in the country’s strength in depth.
La Rochelle captain and No.8 Gregory Alldritt, whose axis with Dupont has been so influential to France’s success, and Racing 92 centre Gael Fickou both captained Les Bleus last November while Bordeaux wing Damien Penaud is their all-time leading try scorer. Yet even without that exemplary trio France do not look weak.
“Well, up front is always going to be the case, isn’t it?” Farrell said of the challenge ahead.
“They’ve got a very strong pack that’s certain to try to get on the front foot. It all starts there, forwards tend to earn the right by getting gainline dominance with the ball in hand, but also from the set-piece, the maul is pretty strong. We’re aware of all that.
“And then the razzle-dazzle they’ve got behind that with their half-backs and outside backs is pretty impressive.
“We all know they’re a world-class side, and certainly at home, world-class sides tend to have an all-court game and we’ve got to relish that and we’ve got to make sure we impose our game on top of them and hopefully disrupt them.”
Captain Caelan Doris believes one of those disruptors could be back-row colleague Cian Prendergast, the 25-year-old elder brother of starting fly-half Sam, who is set for his Six Nations debut at blindside flanker in the absence of the injured Ryan Baird.
The Connacht captain went toe-to-toe with Doris in last month’s URC derby against Leinster in Galway and left an impression on the Irish skipper, not least as a perpetual nuisance at the breakdown.
“Set-piece, first of all, he’s an unbelievable lineout leader. He does a lot of work in the defensive lineout, a very good lineout option in attack as well. So I think that’s one strong point of his definitely,” Doris said of the Six Nations debutant, one of four in Ireland’s matchday 23 alongside wing Tommy O’Brien and replacement forwards Mikey Milne and Nick Timoney.
“He’s a nuisance as well. I obviously faced him in the Dexcom two weeks ago, and he just gets stuck in both sides of the ball, and he’s extremely solid.
“He’s got good skills, very good understanding of the game, nuisance at the breakdown. I’m looking forward to playing with him in the back row massively.”
Doris has the utmost confidence in his team, which carries none of the trepidation felt in many quarters outside the Ireland camp ahead of this pivotal Six Nations fixture. Though his head coach described the national team’s current status as hunters, not the hunted last week, Doris said the mindset had not changed one bit.
“I think it’s still about doing things our way and doing things properly from how we’ve trained and carrying that forward. There’s probably an extra hunger in defence to go after them and get the ball back and things like that. But ultimately it still comes back to showing what we’re capable of, showing the belief that we’ve created through how we’ve trained and bringing that forward tomorrow night.”
T Ramos (Toulouse); T Attissogbe (Pau), N Depoortère (Bordeaux-Begles), Y Moefana (Bordeaux-Begles), L Bielle-Biarrey (Bordeaux-Begles) ; M Jalibert (Bordeaux-Begles), A Dupont (Toulouse) – captain; J-B Gros (Toulon); J Marchand (Toulouse), D Aldegheri (Toulouse); C Ollivon (Toulon), M Guillard (Lyon); F Cros (Toulouse), O Jegou (La Rochelle), A Jelonch (Toulouse).
P Mauvaka (Toulouse), R Neti (Toulouse), R Montagne (Clermont), H Auradou (Pau), E Meafou (Toulouse), L Nouchi (Montpellier), B Serin (Toulon), K Gourgues (Toulouse).
J Osborne (Leinster); T O’Brien (Leinster), G Ringrose (Leinster), S McCloskey (Ulster), J Stockdale (Ulster); S Prendergast (Leinster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); J Loughman (Munster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Clarkson (Leinster); J McCarthy (Leinster), T Beirne (Munster); C Prendergast (Connacht), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster) – captain.
R Kelleher (Leinster), M Milne (Munster), F Bealham (Connacht), J Ryan (Leinster), J Conan (Leinster), N Timoney (Ulster), C Casey (Munster), J Crowley (Munster).
Karl Dickson (England).
