Just days after being crowned the Six Nations Rising Star, Ulster’s Robert Baloucoune has been ruled out for approximately three months after sustaining an elbow injury in Ireland’s Triple Crown-clinching victory over Scotland.

Key points:

• Baloucoune requires surgery on elbow injury sustained against Scotland
• 28-year-old scored three tries in four Six Nations matches
• Named BKT Rising Star of the 2026 Championship
• Likely to miss remainder of Ulster’s URC and Challenge Cup campaigns
• Should be available for Ireland’s Nations Championship fixtures in July
• Ulster facing backline injury crisis ahead of Connacht clash

The 28-year-old, who emerged as one of the standout performers in this year’s Championship, will undergo surgery on the elbow problem picked up during the closing stages of Ireland’s 43-21 win at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday. Baloucoune departed the match with 15 minutes remaining and Ulster confirmed the news in a brief statement on social media.

The timing could scarcely be worse for the Enniskillen native, whose remarkable resurgence this season had captured the imagination of Irish rugby supporters. Baloucoune scored three tries in four matches during the Six Nations, playing a key role in Ireland’s Triple Crown success after being recalled to Andy Farrell’s squad following a lengthy absence from the international scene.

Farrell always knew Baloucoune was a rare talent, first calling him into the Ireland squad as a development player for the 2020 Six Nations when he was a 22-year-old on an Ulster development contract. Yet injuries repeatedly derailed his progress at international level. He made his try-scoring Ireland debut against the USA in June 2021, added a second cap against Argentina the following November, and another two caps in November 2022 before falling out of favour and, largely due to injuries, out of sight.

Just a year ago, he was making his return for Ulster after 11 months out with a hamstring injury. He suffered a fresh hamstring setback after scoring in Ulster’s comeback win over the Stormers last March, when he was replaced after 47 minutes. An ankle injury then hampered his start to this season, but he has been in excellent form since making his return in October.

The winger’s transformation has been remarkable. A stunning hat-trick for Ulster against the Lions in October kick-started his season and he added braces in his next two games, for Ireland XV against Spain and against Benetton in the URC. Across all matches this season he has a strike rate of 11 tries in 12 games.

“To be honest, I was surprised at being in camp, so I will just take every chance that I get,” Baloucoune said ahead of this year’s Championship.

When asked whether he thought the Ireland ship had sailed, he admitted: “To be honest, yeah, probably. When you’re not playing, it still seems pretty far away. You know, it had been a while and playing for Ulster was even looking a bit dreadful.”

Yet when his opportunity came against Italy in Round 2, Baloucoune seized it with both hands. His ability to find work off the ball, finish scoring chances out wide, and his reliability under intense pressure in defence made him the Six Nations Rising Star award’s standout candidate.

The irony of winning a “rising star” award at 28 wasn’t lost on him. “Yeah, the award was a bit of a shock, to be honest; 28 and getting the rising star – I’m getting slagged for it already. But I’m grateful for it and at least people are seeing what I’ve put out there.”

He added: “It’s probably something I wouldn’t have thought would happen. I’m 28, I’m pretty old to be getting the Rising Star award. But hopefully I can show people that there’s always a chance to put your best foot forward, and when you get the chance to take the opportunity.”

Baloucoune nearly missed out on a rugby career altogether. He was considering universities in London and Nottingham, with a plan to study Sports Management. “I was meant to be going to uni and probably leaving Ulster,” he recalled. “That would have probably been the end of my rugby.”

Then came a call from Ireland Sevens coach James Topping. It proved to be a pivotal moment in Baloucoune’s life as he took up the invitation to play sevens, quickly showed his class, and was soon part of the Ulster set-up.

“So I’m just grateful for the opportunities that everyone’s kind of helped me along the way, even since school, where I didn’t really know the rules of rugby.”

His impact in this Six Nations, after his injury troubles of recent years, was extraordinary. The Ulster wing came into Farrell’s team for the Round 2 win against Italy and quickly made himself a key figure. “It’s been an unbelievable experience,” he said. “The group’s been massive. It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience for me because I wasn’t expecting it when I came in.”

The injury is a further blow to Ulster head coach Richie Murphy, who has been hit with a number of injuries to his backline ahead of Friday’s crucial interpro against Connacht. James Hume and David Shanahan both sustained concussions in last week’s win against Edinburgh and are following return-to-play protocols, while centre Jude Postlethwaite and out-half Jake Flannery will be sidelined for a number of weeks with respective hand and shoulder injuries.

The province could also be without versatile Irish international forward Cormac Izuchukwu, who is also following return-to-play protocols for concussion, while Harry Sheridan will miss at least two games due to suspension following his red card for a dangerous tackle against Edinburgh.

The three-month layoff leaves the pacy winger with a slim chance of featuring again this season for the province, with the URC final set to take place on Saturday, 20 June, if Ulster get there. Ulster currently sit third in the standings, meaning a push for the final remains possible, but Baloucoune would be in a race against time to be fit.

However, Baloucoune should still be available for selection for Ireland on their summer trip to Australia and New Zealand, if required. A more realistic target for the Enniskillen man would be to make Ireland’s three matches in the Nations Championship during the summer, when they take on Australia, Japan and New Zealand. The first of those matches is against the Wallabies in Sydney on 4 July.

It is a desperately unfortunate turn of events for a player who had spoken of his determination to kick on after such an impressive spring campaign. “Hopefully it’s now an upward trajectory and I’ll try to push on from there,” he had said just days ago.

“I had a big pre-season with Ulster, did a lot of stuff with the Irish physio, trying to get my hamstrings sorted and doing a lot of sprint work and stuff like that. That’s kind of made me a bit more robust and I’m probably the fittest that I’ve been in my whole life.”

For now, the focus turns to recovery. With next year’s Rugby World Cup on the horizon, both Ulster and Ireland will be hoping “The Cat” – as teammates have nicknamed him for his laid-back demeanour and ability to land on his feet – can return to the form that made him one of the stories of the 2026 Six Nations.

Two of rugby’s most experienced coaches have delivered a scathing verdict on World Rugby’s annual Shape of the Game summit, with Eddie Jones and Ewen McKenzie questioning the governing body’s capacity to make decisions and warning that the sport risks falling behind its rivals as a result.

The Shape of the Game is World Rugby’s annual gathering of global rugby leaders — union and competition chief executives, players, coaches, referees and commercial experts — convened to consider the laws, officiating philosophy and future direction of the sport. This year’s edition arrived amid unusual levels of pre-summit noise. Reports had circulated that Australia and New Zealand were pushing proposals to further depower the scrum, while France and South Africa had reportedly aligned in opposition. Rassie Erasmus had devoted a three-part podcast series on his Rassie+ platform to making the public case for protecting the scrum and maul as genuine contests. The expectation of a significant showdown drew considerable attention — only for World Rugby to emerge with a statement confirming no changes to the laws and a pivot towards fan experience and commercial presentation.

World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson said: “The feedback from around the world is that the game on the field is broadly in a positive place. The message this week is to focus on better explaining, selling and celebrating our sport in what is an ever more competitive environment.

Speaking on the latest episode of Rugby Unity, recorded in the immediate aftermath of this week’s London summit, Jones was unsparing. “If you watch rugby and you think it’s in good health, then you’re probably looking at the wrong things,” he said. World Rugby’s official statement declared that “the on-field product is in a strong, positive place” and confirmed there would be no changes to the laws of the game — a conclusion that Jones attributed entirely to the structural dysfunction of the meeting itself.

“There were 200 people. 200. It’s a joke. It’s a joke,” he said. “The game needs to get sorted out. We can all see that. But because they had so many people in the room, they couldn’t come to a decision on anything. So they all hold hands at the end, have a gin and tonic and say it’s all good.”

McKenzie was equally dismissive of the process, noting that the summit’s central conclusion — a pivot towards commercial and fan-experience priorities — fell outside World Rugby’s core purpose entirely. “The fact that they just flipped it across to commercial and fan stuff, that’s not even their charter,” he said. “They should be talking about the actual specifics of the game and can we make it better.” His verdict on the statement itself was equally terse: “You could have probably written that and saved the 200 flights and the 200 hotel rooms. The game’s in good shape. Of course they’re going to say that — otherwise they look like they’re doing a bad job.”

The frustration from both men is rooted not in abstract disappointment but in a clear sense of what concrete problems remain unaddressed. McKenzie argued that years of regulatory intervention have stripped the scrum of its technical identity, turning what was once a genuine contest of skill and craft into a simple power confrontation managed by the referee. “Back in the day, the contest was between the front rows. The hooker had to strike for the ball, the loose head had to keep the scrum up, the tight end trying to take it as low as possible,” he said. “All of those things have been taken out of the game. All of those front row activities. There was actual skill and strength and position.” Today, McKenzie argued, those individual craft elements have been regulated out of existence in the name of safety and referee control: “All the skills have been taken out of it. It’s just a straight pushing contest controlled by the referee.”

That analysis sits uncomfortably alongside a summit communiqué that described the on-field product as broadly positive and called for better marketing of the existing game rather than any review of what the existing game actually is. It is also relevant context for the running pre-summit debate about proposals — ultimately shelved — to further depower the scrum in some competitions. Both Jones and McKenzie had, in last week’s preview episode, rejected any such move outright. The summit’s “no changes” verdict was therefore welcomed on that narrow front, but neither man was prepared to treat inaction as a success.

The deeper critique from both coaches concerned governance structure rather than individual intent. Pembroke noted that the RFU has recently begun its own reform process, voting to reduce its National Council from 62 members to 44 by 2029 and stripping it of the power to pass regulation. McKenzie drew the obvious parallel. “Other sports just have a commission and they just make decisions and get on with it,” he said. “No business with shareholders runs like rugby union does, which is probably why we’re broke.” Jones agreed, identifying the June meeting of World Rugby’s 53-member council as the next crucial moment: “They’ve got to vote themselves out of business. They have to.” His summary of why they likely won’t was characteristically blunt: “Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.”

McKenzie also raised the absence of meaningful transparency around the summit itself, questioning why the presentations could not have been broadcast publicly — particularly given that World Rugby’s own stated priority is now fan engagement. “Open the windows, let the light in,” he said, noting that the fan representative body United Rugby Fans, run by Mark Philpot, had not been invited to a summit ostensibly focused on the fan experience.

The pair’s conclusion was that, with the 2027 Rugby World Cup now 18 months away, the window for meaningful structural reform before the game’s flagship tournament has effectively closed. “It’s gone,” Jones said flatly. “They can’t move fast enough to do anything now prior to the World Cup. So we’ll just wait and see. And I’m sure we’ll be talking come World Cup time about problems in the game that could have been resolved now.”

McKenzie’s closing thought distilled the frustration neatly. “I’m more interested in getting more 15-on-15 time. That’s all I’m saying. The rest of it is subtle, and a lot of the laws are already there — it’s just a question of whether they want to enforce them.”

Eddie Jones and Ewen McKenzie were speaking on Rugby Unity, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Steve Borthwick has confirmed a heavily patched backline for England’s penultimate Six Nations fixture against Italy in Rome on Saturday, with centre Ollie Lawrence and first-choice scrum-half Alex Mitchell both ruled out of the trip to the Stadio Olimpico.

Lawrence, who had returned to the squad for round three only to last barely an hour of England’s 42–21 defeat to Ireland at Twickenham, will remain at Bath for further rehabilitation on the persistent knee problem that has hampered his entire championship campaign. The 26-year-old received an injection on the affected joint during the week but was deemed insufficiently recovered to travel, leaving Borthwick without his first-choice outside centre for a fourth time in five rounds.

Mitchell’s absence is no less significant. The Northampton Saints scrum-half lasted just 24 minutes of the Ireland defeat before limping off with a hamstring injury, and has been officially ruled out for the remainder of the tournament. Jack van Poortvliet is expected to start at nine in Rome, with Raffi Quirke — called up as cover following the injury — providing back-up from the bench.

Borthwick confirmed an updated 36-man squad on Friday, which also includes back-row recalls for Jack Kenningham and prop George Kloska, while five players named in the original pre-tournament group — Lawrence, Mitchell, along with Fin Baxter, Ben Curry and Fin Smith — were sent to Girona for specialist rehabilitation.

With Lawrence sidelined, Tommy Freeman is the frontrunner to move infield from his customary wing position to outside centre, a role he has not occupied at international level. Henry Slade provides an alternative option should Borthwick opt for a more natural 13.

England travel to Rome having lost two consecutive matches — the Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh and the record 42–21 reverse against Ireland — with their title hopes all but extinguished. Yet with France still on course for a Grand Slam and a meeting between the sides looming on Super Saturday (14 March), the Italy fixture carries genuine importance as a platform on which to rebuild momentum and confidence.

For Italy, the match represents a significant opportunity of their own. Gonzalo Quesada’s side have impressed throughout this campaign — beating Scotland in the opener and pushing Ireland close in Dublin — but will be without their talisman Ange Capuozzo, who was ruled out for the rest of the tournament on Tuesday with a sprained acromioclavicular joint sustained in the 33–8 defeat to France in Lille last weekend. It was only Capuozzo’s first appearance of the championship after he had been sidelined by a broken finger since late December.

With two depleted backlines set to meet in Rome, Saturday’s fixture has taken on an unusual complexion. England will need their forwards to set a platform, and will be hoping the likes of Freeman and whoever fills the midfield alongside him can provide enough creativity to secure a result that will provide some momentum ahead of Super Saturday.

Italy v England kicks off at 4.40pm GMT on Saturday, 7 March.

England squad

Forwards: Ollie Chessum, Arthur Clark, Alex Coles, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Chandler Cunningham-South, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Trevor Davison, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Joe Heyes, Maro Itoje, Jack Kenningham, Emmanuel Iyogun, George Kloska, Guy Pepper, Henry Pollock, Bevan Rodd, Sam Underhill

Backs: Henry Arundell, Seb Atkinson, Elliot Daly, Fraser Dingwall, George Ford, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Cadan Murley, Raffi Quirke, Tom Roebuck, Henry Slade, Marcus Smith, Fin Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward, Jack van Poortvliet