Full coverage: irfu

When the ball is in play, a rugby referee has 138 potential penalties he may award, a staggering amount to assess while keeping up with elite professional athletes.

The lineout will be a key battle in the tactical war at the Aviva. Ireland will have a plan to restrict France's attacking ambitions.

Coaches would typically be replaced due to poor performance in the first part of the cycle, but it is very unusual to be let go within 10 months of the biggest competition as in the cases of Eddie Jones and Wayne Pivac. 

Rugby unions all over the world are facing increased pressure to address the concussion problem in the game.

Rugby doesn't just have to evolve, it has to make radical alterations to the way it operates on and off the field.

The Conor Murray of 2019-22 has become a reliable but ultimately more risk averse, more predictable and less dynamic rugby player.

Three Irish players have lodged filings against the IRFU and World Rugby. The firm representing them has previously said it is handling a number of rugby concussion cases and is working closely with the UK firm which earlier this year issued proceedings in a class action against World Rugby.

A series victory in New Zealand is an extraordinary achievement in its own right but there is another prize at stake and now is the time for Andy Farrell to experiment.

Leinster's growth was once watched over by a protective IRFU but they saw the need for independent thinking and since then, the development has been spectacular.

The lazy view is that collisions, and therefore head collisions, are such a fundamental part of rugby that they can't ever be fully removed from the game. Players know the risks, this argument goes. But they don't because we still don't know enough about concussion.