Ireland host Argentina on Friday, 6 November with Casey and Timoney in the starting XV

Ireland's starting XV

Andy Farrell has named his side for the Nations Championship match against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Friday, 6 November, with kick-off at 8.10pm. The most visible call is at halfback, where Craig Casey starts at scrum-half ahead of Jamison Gibson-Park, who returned from a groin injury in the win over Munster on 24 October and drops to the bench. Sam Prendergast is picked at fly-half over Ciarán Frawley after shaking off a wrist injury. Robbie Henshaw moves to outside centre to replace Garry Ringrose, who is ruled out by a hamstring problem, and Dan Sheehan captains the side with Caelan Doris missing through injury.

Casey and the scrum-half choice

Farrell justified the Casey selection by pointing to the responsibility the scrum-half will carry for running the week's preparation and for how Ireland play in the match. He said the player has been playing well himself and that the competition for the shirt remains open.

“We need him to be able to have the opportunity to do that.”

Back row and returning players

Nick Timoney starts at openside, which gives the Ulster player his first chance to wear the number seven shirt for Ireland, while Josh van der Flier drops to the bench. The 31-year-old is set to play his ninth consecutive Test, though seven of the previous eight in that run came from the bench. Sean Jansen, a Connacht number eight, makes his second Test start in place of the injured Caelan Doris and Jack Conan, having scored a try on his debut against Japan in July. Ryan Baird, Andrew Porter and Mack Hansen return from injuries and have not featured for Ireland since the defeat by South Africa in November 2025. Hansen wears the number 11 shirt in what is Ireland's first home game since James Lowe left Irish rugby, and Robert Baloucoune keeps the right wing berth. Ireland's last Test was a 40-21 loss to New Zealand in July.

Argentina's rebuilt side

Contepomi has made 12 changes from the team that drew 28-28 with Australia at the Stadio Malvinas Argentinas in early September. Only three players keep their places from that match: loosehead prop Boris Wenger, second-rower Guido Petti, who played at openside in the draw, and number eight Pablo Matera, who was at blindside. Santiago Carreras and Thomas Gallo are unavailable through injury, according to RTÉ. The Irish Times attributes the reshuffle to a mix of injury, club commitments and player welfare, and Contepomi said his side faces two of the top four teams in this block while describing Italy as a very much improving side.

“We need to get better as a team, we need to start making less unforced errors, try to get better at the set-piece.”

The coach's stated priorities are consistency and set-piece work, the areas he wants fixed before the Irish match.

Bench and cover

Sam Illo, a Connacht prop aged 25 according to the Irish Examiner, is named as the replacement tighthead and is due his home debut at the Aviva Stadium. He made his Test debut off the bench against Japan in July. The rest of the replacements are Rónan Kelleher and Tom O'Toole in the front row, James Ryan and Josh van der Flier among the forwards, and Jamison Gibson-Park, Ciarán Frawley and Bundee Aki in the backs. TheJournal describes the bench as a 5/3 split of forwards and backs.

Kick-off and match details

The match is at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, 6 November, with kick-off at 8.10pm, and TheJournal lists Virgin Media as the broadcaster. Luke Pearce is named as referee for the fixture. RTÉ is running a live blog and live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Sport Extra. The timeline below sets out the two match-day markers the sources give.

Both squads are named, so kick-off is the next fixed point in the fixture.