With a Six Nations squad to be named on Wednesday, Saturday afternoon in Bayonne will serve as a perfect opportunity for Harry Byrne to catch the eye of Ireland head coach Andy Farrell.
The Irish out-half jersey has been a tug-of-war between Byrne's Leinster team-mate Sam Prendergast and Munster's Jack Crowley for just over a year, but Farrell has been keen to stress that both Byrne and Ciarán Frawley are very much still in his thoughts.
Byrne featured for Ireland A in their win against Spain in November, and with Frawley out injured at the moment, the 26-year-old looks likely to join Prendergast and Crowley in the extended Ireland squad when it’s confirmed in the middle of next week.
It’s been nearly two years since Byrne won the last of his four Ireland senior caps against Scotland in the 2024 Six Nations, and for a time last season it appeared as if his hopes of further caps were starting to fade.
A positive loan spell at Bristol Bears restored some confidence, and he got back in with Ireland A last February. The departure of his older brother Ross for Gloucester has opened up game time for him at his native province in what’s been an impressive 2025/26 season.
After coming off the bench in last week’s Investec Champions Cup clash with La Rochelle, Byrne (above) kicked the winning penalty with the final play of the game as Leinster defeated Ronan O’Gara’s side in a 25-24 thriller.
That intervention has seen him rewarded with a start against Bayonne at Stade Jean-Dauger this week, as the province go in search of one of the top seeds for the Champions Cup knockouts
"I think every week is an audition for everybody," Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said, when asked about Byrne’s opportunity to impress ahead of the Six Nations squad announcement.
"Players have to just focus on the here and now, which is trying to control what they can, which is their own performance in the context of what the team needs as well."
Cullen has done a good job mixing and matching between his two main out-halves; Saturday’s trip to Bayonne will be a ninth provincial outing for Prendergast this season and a 10th for Byrne.
By this evening, both players will have featured from the start and off the bench in the Champions Cup pool stage, while they also shared the 10 jersey over the Christmas Interpro schedule.
At times, such as last week, the province have used both at the same time to add another layer to their attack.
"Harry and Sam are both doing a great job for us this year in terms of how they have shared the load," Cullen continued.
"We know, because of player management and international players being gone at certain stages, Harry has been more of a constant in the group because the international guys are in and out and they have to be managed. But they're working really well together and that's really pleasing.
"Sam started last week. At 60 minutes, we made that call [to bring Harry on] because we thought we needed freshness from Harry, and his eyes, that he would deliver.
"Then it's, 'OK, what do we do with the rest of the team and different scenarios that we would have teased out as coaches leading into the game?’ Sam moves to 15 as Harry comes on at 10, and you could see it for a couple of tries how Sam is directing some of the forwards around because there's tired bodies out there in an intense physical game that that was last weekend.
"In other games, we've used Sam at 10 and Harry at 12. I think the two of them have been fantastic. I can't speak highly enough about the two of them.
"I hope they both go well, and I hope they both go on to represent Ireland during this Six Nations period coming up as well, but that's quite a while away yet."
In total, Cullen has made eight changes to his side from last week’s win against La Rochelle.
A bonus-point win for the province would see them finish top of Pool 3, although they will need to rely on results elsewhere to secure one of the top two overall seeds, which would guarantee home advantage all the way to a potential semi-final.
Among the changes from last week, Jack Boyle has shaken off a shoulder injury to start at loosehead prop, with Leinster and Ireland reeling from injuries to Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy.
McCarthy looks set to miss the entire Six Nations, with the 22-year-old set for surgery on a foot injury, while Porter appears to be a major doubt for Ireland’s opening Six Nations clash with France in Paris on Thursday, 5 February.
"Paddy's going to be out for a while unfortunately," Cullen explained.
"He's going to have a procedure done, so I think we'll probably know a bit more once that is done next week.
"Andrew, it's a [calf] muscle, so I don't know, it's week by week, but he's going to be gone for the next few weeks anyway. We'll see how that develops.
"I'm not 100% sure, I'm not sure anyone really is, but Paddy is a lot more serious unfortunately."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen to live commentary of Munster v Castres in the Investec Champions Cup on Saturday from 5.30pm on RTÉ Radio 1.
