Six Nations 2026: All the round three team news, broadcasters, kick-off times and referees
England's Maro Itoje, Wales' Sam Costelow and France's Emmanuel Meafou.
All the matchday 23s, fixture details and TV broadcasters for round three of the 2026 Six Nations have now been confirmed.
The weekend’s action gets underway in London with England hosting Ireland at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday before Wales hosts Scotland in Cardiff.
Round three concludes at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille on Sunday where France and Italy do battle.
Team news overview
Steve Borthwick has welcomed the return of Ollie Lawrence, with the Bath star slotting into the starting number 13 jersey and partnering Fraser Dingwall. He has handed a first start to Henry Pollock, who packs down at number eight, with Tom Curry also joining the run-on team as Ben Earl shifts to the side of the scrum.
Jack van Poortvliet and Marcus Smith are named on the bench, but the match is particularly important with captain Maro Itoje notching up his 100th appearance for his country.
Meanwhile, Andy Farrell has made a host of changes following the Six Nations victory over Italy last weekend. Josh van der Flier and Tadhg Beirne are the starting flankers for the visit to Dublin with skipper Caelan Doris shifting to the number eight jersey. Jack Crowley and Jamison Gibson-Park are named in the half-backs with Sam Prendergast falling out of the team.
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Gabriel Hamer-Webb is set to make his Test debut for Wales as Steve Tandy has rung the changes for Scotland’s visit to Cardiff. Louis Rees-Zammit continues at full-back but there is a change at fly-half with Sam Costelow now linking up with Tomos Williams.
Gregor Townsend has also made several changes with Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe starting in the back-three. Gregor Brown and Matt Fagerson join Rory Darge in the back-row.
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France are the only unbeaten team in the tournament and Fabien Galthie has stuck to the winning formula, making just two alterations to his starting XV. Emmanuel Meafou and Thibaud Flament swap roles with Charles Ollivon and Mickaël Guillard as the latter duo are included amongst the replacements.
As for Italy, Juan Ignacio Brex is absent once again but the Azzurri have been bolstered by the return of Ange Capuozzo who starts at full-back in the only alteration to the starting XV. There are further changes on the bench as Pablo Dimcheff and Giosue Zilocchi are included as front-row replacements.
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England v Ireland
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Henry Arundell, 10 George Ford, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Henry Pollock, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje (c), 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Trevor Davison, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Guy Pepper, 21 Sam Underhill, 22 Jack van Poortvliet, 23 Marcus Smith
Ireland: 15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 James Lowe, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris (c), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 James Ryan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Jeremy Loughman
Replacements: 16 Rónan Kelleher, 17 Tom O’Toole, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Nick Timoney, 20 Cian Prendergast, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ciaran Frawley, 23 Tommy O’Brien
Date: Saturday, 21 February, 2026
Kick-off: 14:10 GMT
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
TV: ITV, TF1, RTE Sport, SuperSport, Sky Italia, Sky NZ, Stan Sports, Peacock
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (FFR), Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
FPRO: Mike Adamson
Wales v Scotland
Wales: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit, 14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Alex Mann, 6 Taine Plumtree, 5 Ben Carter, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Freddie Thomas, 20 James Botham, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Blair Murray
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (c), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Gregor Brown, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Max Williamson, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Dave Cherry, 1 Nathan McBeth
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Grant Gilchrist, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Darcy Graham
Date: Saturday, 21 February, 2026
Kick-off: 16:40 GMT
Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff
TV: BBC, Virgin Media, Premier Sports, S4C, TF1, SuperSport, Sky Italia, Sky NZ, Stan Sports, Peacock
Referee: Matthew Carley (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson (RFU), Adam Leal (RFU)
TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
FPRO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)
France v Italy
France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Théo Attissogbe, 13 Émilien Gailleton, 12 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont (c), 8 Anthony Jelonch, 7 Oscar Jegou, 6 François Cros, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 4 Thibaud Flament, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros
Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Georges-Henri Colombe, 19 Charles Ollivon, 20 Mickaël Guillard, 21 Lenni Nouchi, 22 Baptiste Serin, 23 Pierre-Louis Barassi
Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Louis Lynagh, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Michele Lamaro (c), 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Pablo Dimcheff, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosuè Zilocchi, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Riccardo Favretto, 21 David Odiase, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Paolo Odogwu
Date: Sunday, 22 February, 2026
Venue: Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille
TV: ITV, France Télévisions, RTE Sport, SuperSport, Sky Italia, Sky NZ, Stan Sports, Peacock
Kick-off: 16:10 local time (15:10 GMT)
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (RFU), Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
FPRO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)