Mirrorsport predicts the Ireland XV for the Nations Championship game Argentina this Friday night: Keenan; O'Brien, Hen...

Connacht could be about to make their most important contribution to a competitive Ireland game in their history.

The western province may well end up supplying the strike-winger, the out-half and two of the back-rows against Argentina this Friday night.

As it stands Sligo-born Aengus McMorrow, who played for , became the first Connacht native to represent Ireland, playing just one game, against Wales in 1951.

Yet despite providing such greats as Ciaran Fitzgerald, Eric Elwood, Jim Staples, Simon Geoghegan, Noel Mannion and more since, they have never had more than three players in the starting XV for a competitive international.

But a combination of Stuart Lancaster’s soft 2026 calendar year revolution, smart signings, and injuries in other places could see the Cinderella province cut a new record at the weekend.

Out-half Ciaran Frawley has a better than 50/50 chance of starting as Sam Prendergast struggled though last week nursing a wrist injury; Andy Farrell has an ad hoc rule that players who don’t train fully early in the week of a match don’t start.

Given Caelan Doris and Jack Conan are unavailable, it is teak-tough Sean Jansen who is in pole position to start at no8.

Should Jansen get selected he will be the first player other than Conan or Doris to start a competitive game at no8 for Ireland since CJ Stander in March 2021!

Moreover given those two high-profile back-row, absentees there could be room for Cian Prendergast at no6 should Farrell want to give him a run ahead of Tadhg Beirne who is playing full-time as a second-row with Munster.

Add in the return of the Mack, that is speedy winger Mack Hansen who has been sidelined with a foot injury and who last played for Ireland in November 2025.

And that's not allowing for Bundee Aki's chances of being asked to step in for the unavailable Garry Ringrose!

Says an enthusiastic Hansen of what’s in store: “We’ve got this Nations Championship to play for…

“And you’ve got to hit the ground running in that you’ve got the Six Nations and then you’ve got games even leading up to the World Cup and then it’s in to the World Cup itself.

“There is still two trophies to play for even before you get to the World Cup so it’s exciting, a lot to play for at the moment.”

Meanwhile, says Hansen, of his Connacht teammate Jansen with whom he was rooming last week:

“In fairness to Janse, he is who he is, he has a chip on his shoulder, he was kind of shunned from the New Zealand team, wasn’t give the respect he feels he deserves and then he’s come over and just shown exactly what he can do.

“He’s a hardy bastard, He’d run over pretty close to anyone in world rugby I would say.

“The way Janse carries the ball, that’s definitely his strength. Making metres, you’d rarely see him not making gain line at least.

“In saying that though, he still melts guys in defence. He’s got that to his game 100 percent. We are so lucky at the moment at Connacht, we’ve got a great back row of boys doing that.

Ireland (probable) vs Argentina, The Aviva, Friday, Friday, November 6th, 8.10pm

Keenan; O’Brien, Henshaw, McCloskey, Hansen; Frawley, Gibson-Park Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, McCarthy, Ryan, Prendergast, van der Flier, Jansen