“He’s a bigger horse than a man,” declares Joe McCarthy of the young player who could soon be with him on the greens of Ireland. James McNabney holds court with a dozen journalists nearby at the Irish High Performance Center in Dublin. The Ulster back line played for Ireland Up to 20 years with McCarthy’s younger brother Paddy, and has already made an impression. Ireland coach Andy Farrell describes him as “some specimen”.
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“He’s a great guy,” adds McCarthy. “He’s very funny and he definitely has that kind of farmer strength. I think he’s a farmer. He definitely has that farmer strength in him.” In Ireland, that ranks high on the list of sporting compliments. Interestingly, McCarthy was described by his old coach at Trinity Rugby as having “farmer’s strength” when he first broke into the Irish senior set-up.
McNabney was set to make his Ireland debut in the summer of 2025. That was disrupted by an ACL injury which also scratched his entire 2025-26 campaign. As soon as Farrell could get the 23-year-old back, he did. “James had a really tough year last year, he was out with his ACL, and he came right back … it shows the character of the player,” McCarthy said. “He’s got these big, powerful hands. I know my brother Paddy loved playing with him anyway, at 20. He was a real asset to them. I’ve been in camp with him a few times. He’s an impressive player.”
McNabney and Jamie Benson, his versatile Ulster team-mate, are the only new additions to Ireland’s squad for the northern swing of the 2026 Nations Championship. Ireland are definitely without the services of Jack Crowley, Caelan Doris, Jack Conan, Calvin Nash, Jack Boyle and Paddy McCarthy for the upcoming matches. Garry Ringrose is also likely to miss out, having picked up a hamstring injury, while Tadhg Furlong is in danger of missing some, if not all, of the games after being cited for a doubtful drop-off against Munster.
Prior to any hearing, Leinster Scrum coach Robin McBryde and Ireland assistant coach Johnny Sexton talk about the character of the veteran prop. Sexton says: “I know Tadhg as a person, first of all, and I don’t think it’s something he would do. So I have to support him in that regard, but we’ll see what happens with the disciplinary hearing.”
Sexton received a three-match ban back in 2023 for being “confrontational and aggressive” according to Champions Cup final referee Jac Peyper. Asked what steps would be involved in that Furlong hearing, Sexton replied, “I’m not really sure, process-wise. I haven’t been to too many disciplinary hearings myself, so I don’t really know.” That line, delivered with as straight a face as possible, elicits barely suppressed chuckles from the press. Cheers aside, it must be noted that the former Ireland captain has only collected five yellow cards in his 17-year professional career.
To judge someone properly, you have to see them play games in the team they are used to… Ciarán (Frawley) has done well so far. That puts him right in the box now to play for Ireland.
Sexton hopes Sam Prendergast, who is nursing a sprained ankle, will be cleared to play against Argentina next week. Still, he was impressed with Benson and pleased with Ciaran Frawley’s positive start to life in Connacht.
“Well, even selfishly, from an Irish point of view, I thought (his move from Leinster) was a great thing for us,” reflected Sexton. “Obviously for Leinster, probably not so much… when you become a manager you become selfish and to have another option is great. Let’s say Ciarán didn’t go to Connacht this year we found ourselves in this scenario (with crowley and harry byrne injured), maybe he played 15 or 12. To judge someone properly, you have to see them play games and play in the team they are used to. That is certainly what Ciarán has done, and so far he has done well. That puts him right in the frame to play for Ireland.”
Ireland ended their 2025-26 campaign with a 40-21 defeat by New Zealand at Eden Park. This week, with most of the main squad assembled, Farrell and his backroom team have made them brave the elements since that heavy defeat. If there was any remote danger of the players forgetting about the huge 12 months ahead, that replay was a painful reminder. While there was wider talk about defense and attack, the forwards were in the lab with John Fogarty and Paul O’Connell to work on perfecting their set-pieces.
“A lot of (the reviews), I know about the forwards, it was the speed of thought and the speed of movement that was the big thing against New Zealand and it led to us being punished,” McCarthy says. “Maybe they weren’t seeing the snaps fast enough, the foot speed wasn’t fast enough, and they were getting quick tries from the back end. That was a big thing.”
“We’ve also talked about developing our attack a little bit, so we’re working on those parts to try to show different pictures and make them more unpredictable. Those are the big things and then obviously as a forward we’re trying to really nail that dominance in set-pieces. ‘The Fog’ and Paulie are all in that. I think I’m very positive about us becoming a real weapon.”
Fans of the four provinces may be confused to see their teams go into this weekend’s games without a host of key players. Farrell and the IRFU have made up their minds and the bigger dogs will be watching the URC play. On Tuesday, the players were put through their paces in the gym, before taking to the indoor court for drills and set plays. When the media filed in for late-afternoon interviews, Fogarty oversaw the 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 scrimmages.
As soon as the final whistle blew in Dublin last November, Irish fans were already talking about a rematch in 2026. The Boks smashed Ireland to bits and only a truly dogged defense prevented them from breaking through.
McCarthy, who favors media rotation, was spared that but insists there was no relaxation period for the players. “Johnny Sexton was challenging us,” says McCarthy. “Can we be ready to play a game on Friday? That’s basically the end of this (first) week, we have to be ready for the Argentina match. That’s how he would like to approach it, as a player, to make sure we have all the details, ready to play a test game on Friday. That way we can spend the next week getting the timing right so we can be together and enjoy playing together properly. do your homework now and then have fun next week.”
Irish lie fourth in the Northern Hemisphere tableahead of their three home games at the Nations Championship. They are just two points behind the French champions but may need to win all three matches at the Aviva Stadium to have any chance of going into the final weekend in London with the top prize in their sights. Argentina and Fiji, ranked eighth and ninth in the world rankings, are ranked first and second respectively ahead of the November 21 date with South Africa which was circled in red for a long time. As soon as the final whistle blew in Dublin last November, Irish fans were already talking about a rematch in 2026. The Boks tore Ireland to shreds and only a truly dogged defense prevented their loss from being a blow. There is real bite to Ireland’s rivalry with the reigning, back-to-back, world champions.
“Those are the things coaches tell you – not to look too far – right?” McCarthy says. “But yeah, it’s definitely really exciting. Obviously, Argentina and Fiji are the ones we play first, but I think South Africa is a measure of where you are, as a team. All the teams around the world in rugby see how they are when they come up against them. I love that challenge. You want to play against the best if you want to be the best. I can’t wait. It will be great. Scrums and mauls, even with the new laws and everything, will be even more of a challenge. That’s going to be something that we need to build well over the next few weeks, and get into that. It will be a class game.”
It will be a big challenge, but for now I like the maul rules. I haven’t been stung yet! I enjoy it.
McCarthy, who declared earlier this year ‘I love to smash’, has been keenly watching teams use mauls as a real attacking weapon, not just inside the 22. His eyebrows raise when I mention South Africa’s zigzag maul, in the third Test of the biggest rivalry, before Malco Zealm’s try against New Zealm. “Exactly yes,” he says. “I think we’re going to have to be creative in how we defend mauls. Obviously, there’s a little bit of brute force, so I’m looking forward to that.”
“It’s going to be more of a battle than ever. We’ve had (referee) Andy Brace again. He was our referee (for Leinster v Munster) at the weekend but he was at training today. He’s been keeping us up to speed (on the maul law). He’s been running us in training (for mauls). They’re going to be running us in training (for mauls). It’s still stung!”
We had Andy Brace again. He was our referee (for Leinster vs. Munster) at the weekend but he was at training today. He made sure to get us up and around the maul laws.”
The only thing McCarthy didn’t enjoy was the sadness he was coming from Munster scrum-half Craig Casey. “I tried to run into Craig at the weekend and he cut me,” admits McCarthy. “It was like a crash and it knocked me over, so he fired me for it. Luckily, we won.”