Beirne leads Ireland bid to build on strong start

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,

Beirne will captain Ireland for the second time on his 75th cap in Saturday's Nations Championship game against Fiji

ByMatt GaultBBC Sport NI senior journalist

Published6 minutes ago

As Tadhg Beirne prepares to captain Ireland at home for the first time, it is worth recapping the impressive manner in which he has built up his CV in recent years.

Since missing the final three games of the Six Nations Grand Slam campaign in 2023 with an ankle injury, Beirne has missed just three Ireland Tests.

He was rested against Italy in 2024 and missed last year's summer meetings with Georgia and Portugal while on British and Irish Lions duty.

Such big-game ubiquity is not easily found in the modern game - and Beirne has often delivered in red and green.

He won the United Rugby Championship with Munster - his second league title after prevailing with Scarlets in 2017 - and was appointed the province's captain, replacing the legendary Peter O'Mahony.

A five-Test Lion, his performances in the back row for Farrell's tourists last year in Australia - playing every minute across the Test series win over the Wallabies - earned him the player of the series accolade.

A three-time member of World Rugby's men's 15s dream team of the year, Beirne was handed the Ireland captaincy for the first time in July's Nations Championship win over Japan, leading them to a 36-20 win.

Next year, adding to his fond memories down under as a key part of Ireland's World Cup squad will top his priority list.

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For now, though, the versatile forward is looking no further than the visit of Fiji to Dublin on Saturday as he bids to make it two wins from two as stand-in skipper.

"It's particularly special doing it at the Aviva, at home," said Beirne, who is deputising for the injured Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan.

"I did have family over in Australia during the summer, but I'll have my family here, extended family and especially with this group, getting to lead those boys out is very cool and very special.

"My wife and daughter will be there, mum and dad will definitely be there, my sister – everyone who's in the country will be there, which is class.

"That's the nice part, leading up to the game, but I have a job to do and the folks will go through that, for sure. I'm really looking forward to it, it's a massive week for me and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far."

Ireland v Fiji

Nations Championship

Saturday 14 November, 20:10 GMT

Aviva Stadium, Dublin

Listen on Sounds

Live commentary on BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Sport website and app

As he often does in green, Beirne played all 80 minutes of Ireland's commanding 42-12 win over Argentina in Dublin last week.

Against an underwhelming Pumas outfit, Ireland raced into a 21-5 half-time lead, and while they doubled their tally in the second half, in his post-match remarks Beirne admitted they "could have got a lot more out of" their autumn opener.

Now, with another week's training under the belt, Beirne says Ireland are determined to lay down another marker before next week's mouth-watering tussle with world champions South Africa.

"The big focus for us is to continue building on our performance, particularly from last week," he added.

"We laid down a foundation of how we want to play, but we're certainly not satisfied with that.

"Tomorrow is all about ourselves and making sure that we can play the way we want to play and put in a better performance over a longer period as well.

"I think there were patches of us playing really well there, but there were also patches where we weren't to the standard that we're going to hold ourselves to."

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,

Beirne played every minute of the British and Irish Lions' Test series triumph over the Wallabies last year

Beirne leads a side featuring seven personnel changes and two positional switches from the Argentina match, with Ronan Kelleher, James Ryan and Josh van der Flier recalled to the forward pack and Jamison Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, Jamie Osborne and Tommy O'Brien drafted into the backline.

Nick Timoney and Mack Hansen switch to number eight and full-back respectively, with Beirne partnering Ryan in the second row.

Ireland, who sit third in the Nations Championship northern hemisphere table, have never lost to Fiji in a Test match and won 52-17 when the sides last met in Dublin in 2024.

The visitors - now coached by Jake White, who led South Africa to World Cup success in 2007 - have lost all four of their matches and were thrashed 54-17 by France in Lyon last week.