Ireland's Boks defeat compounded by potential Six Nations setback

Ireland forward Ryan Baird is a potential injury doubt for the 2026 Six Nations after suffering a suspected broken leg during Saturday’s 24-13 loss to South Africa.

The 26-year-old initially attempted to play through the pain before being replaced by Leinster team-mate Jack Conan with 20 minutes remaining.

Following the retirement of former captain Peter O’Mahony, Baird has started his country’s last six Test matches at blindside flanker, having won 20 of his previous 27 caps as a replacement.

Ireland begin the Six Nations on Thursday, February 5 with a trip to holders France.

Head coach Andy Farrell said: “Ryan Baird, I believe, has fractured his tibia.

“He tried to carry on within all that as well, so there was some courage being shown there.”

Ireland are also awaiting a fitness update on Mack Hansen.

The Connacht back, 27, suffered a recurrence of the foot issue which caused him to miss the defeat to New Zealand and victory over Japan earlier this month.

Farrell has plenty to ponder following a bruising outing against the Springboks but insists he has no concerns about Ireland’s scrum.

South Africa outmuscled the hosts en route to a first Dublin win since 2012, with the majority of their 12 scrums forcing penalties.

Ill-disciplined Ireland conceded 18 penalties across a frenetic encounter during which James Ryan was sent off and Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were sin-binned.

“If you look at our scrum over the last five or six years, it’s been world-class at times,” said Farrell.

“There’s a (British and Irish) Lions front row in there (Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong), so that’s not been an issue for us at all.

“It’s been a strength for us and we pride ourselves on that. Sometimes they (South Africa) catch you.

“They’ve caught plenty other teams and the momentum, they kept on going for the blood, didn’t they?”

Ireland’s ambitions of building on wins over Japan and Australia were dealt a major blow when lock Ryan was dismissed in the 20th minute for an illegal clearout on world player of the year Malcolm Marx.

With South Africa leading 5-0, the infringement caused a Tadhg Beirne try to be disallowed before the home team had spells playing with 13 and 12 men due to the series of yellow cards.

“He’s gutted, he’s upset, he apologised to the group,” Farrell said of Ryan.

“There was other things that went on within the game as well that we need to address. It’s not just one man’s doing by far. We’re all in this together.”