AHEAD OF A brief summer break, The42 Rugby Weekly drew a line under its podcast season with an episode which hinged upon several recommendations from regular listeners: predicting Ireland’s first-choice team for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Sure, many of you will rightly balk at the notion of gazing ahead to the showpiece in France in three years’ time — perhaps only the general unease of the past few months has finally condemned the post-2019 World Cup malaise to the bowels of your subconscious — but as presenter Gavan Casey stressed early doors in today’s pod, it was merely a framework around which Bernard Jackman and Murray Kinsella could discuss and debate the best of Irish rugby’s up-and-comers.
There were several differences in opinion — at one stage, Gavan pointedly told Murray he was wrong, which almost never happens — but when the dust settled, there were three interesting-looking teams sprinkled with youth and left–field calls, as well as a few experienced campaigners which may or may not take listeners by surprise.
As a taster, we’ve listed Bernard’s first XV below. To listen to the reasoning behind it, and to hear Murray’s team as well as Gavan’s altogether better team*, just search for ‘The42 Rugby Weekly’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods. You can also listen at, and download from, the following SoundCloud link.
* Gavan may have written this teaser article.
Bernard Jackman’s predicted first-choice Ireland XV for the 2023 Rugby World Cup
15. Will Addison
14. Jordan Larmour
13. Garry Ringrose (captain)
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Jacob Stockdale
10. Joey Carbery
9. John Cooney
1. Andrew Porter
2. Ronan Kelleher
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. James Ryan
5. Ryan Baird
6. Jack O’Donoghue
7. Dan Leavy
8. Max Deegan
Fire away in the comments section with your predicted teams, captains, and whatever else tickles your fancy!
Bernard Jackman, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey predict their first-choice Ireland XVs for the next World Cup, while Bernard and Murray also give their assessments of Connacht’s two recent southern-hemisphere recruits:
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
He’s not as disappointed as some on relation to how far off they are? They are miles off. No offence to Munster but they are an average,though very gutsy and committed side,and they have hammers Leinster twice in a row now. I do agree that they haven’t had any continuity with combinations,especially from 9-13,and hopefully when the likes of OBrien, Healy, Moore, Teo, McFadden etc come back then there will be a big improvement.
I must take the opportunity to praise Matt O’Connor for the huge improvement in Guinness Pro12 teams. Ever since he arrived at Leinster, every other team has greatly improved. Teams, that two years ago were almost brushed aside by Leinster, have now reached the heights that Leinster once inhabited alone.
Treviso have improved, Munster have improved, Edinburgh have improved, Scarlets have improved, Dragons have improved, Zebra have improved, Connacht (brilliant tonight, by the way) have improved..
In fact, they have all improved so much that Leinster has great difficulty taking on any of them.
By extension, Wasps and Harlequins have shown just how brilliant they are too due to you Matt.
I can hardly wait to see how much Castres get better when they arrive at the RDS soon. They will build statues in your image all over the town.
Matt, you have done European rugby a great service. They have all reached and surpassed Leinster this season thanks to your input at Leinster and everywhere else.
Thank you Matt and Happy New year!.
(and also to Mr Caputo, the news paper seller. Your influence on all other teams has been exceptional)