Ireland have won ten of their last 11 Tests and head to London for their fourth round match in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations in relatively rude health and in good form, whereas England have been patchy, with Eddie Jones coming under a fair degree of critical scrutiny from former coaches and players.
But then again this is still England at Twickenham.
They have lost only two championship games at home in the last decade, to Scotland at an empty Twickenham last year and to Ireland on their St Patrick’s Day Grand Slam coronation in 2018.
That remains Ireland’s only win in their last eight visits to Twickenham dating back to 2010 and since 2018 there have been three defeats, the record 57-15 beating in the 2019 World Cup warm-up match, the 24-12 defeat in the Six Nations two years ago and the 18-7 Autumn Nations Cup loss later that year.
Those latter two were more humbling than the scoreline indicates too. England led 24-0 at half-time in the 2020 Six Nations game, prompting Jones to comment: “We read conditions well, read the referee well and at half-time if it was a cricket game we could have declared. We were just fitter.”
So while Ireland would have had all the motivation in the world when putting Jones’ men to the sword at an empty Aviva last March, they still have a few ghosts to exorcise at English rugby’s citadel.
“Everyone knows how difficult it is to go to Twickenham anyway, so we know that we’ll need to be at our best,” admitted Andy Farrell after Ireland’s 57-6 win over Italy, before also accepting that this game is effectively a title eliminator.
“There’s no saying any other way, is there really? Two teams that have to win to stay in contention for the competition says it all.”
Jones’ tenure has been notable for a high turnover in assistant staff, with the ex-Leicester and Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill coming on board as the new forwards coach last September along with the new attack coach Martin Gleeson, formerly a rugby league player and coach before spending two years at Wasps. But Farrell believes that England have stayed true to their basic principles under Jones.
“I think I see a lot of more of the same. It is that DNA that Eddie has had at England for the whole time that he’s been there, which is that they’re very good set-piece wise, they’re very good at spoiling your set-piece and they’re always tenacious in the carry and their line speed.
“Obviously Richard Cockerill will bring his own piece to the party there. I know Martin Gleeson well, and I know that he’ll try and add a little bit of spark here, there and everywhere in the attack.
“They had a couple of new half-backs playing at the weekend,” added Farrell in reference to the Harry Randall/Marcus Smith combination, “so they’ll be better off for that game and obviously a big game at Twickenham, everyone knows that there’s a lot on the line, so they’re going to be really up for that, just as we are.”
A squad of around 26 will have a two-day camp next Thursday, including an open session for 5,000 fans in the Aviva Stadium, with the remainder being released back to their provinces for a full round of URC games.
Fit enough
“The good thing about the game for us is we seem fit enough as far as personnel is concerned, which is great, so we’re able to get some fitness and some cohesiveness into us this coming week.”
At face value, playing against an Italian side reduced to 13 players for the final hour, and 12 for the final ten minutes, wouldn’t appear to have served much purpose for those afforded a chance to impress Farrell and his assistants, but the head coach maintained otherwise.
“Well they can because you look at Josh van der Flier’s performance and you look at Ryan Baird’s performance and a good few others, they managed to perform really well under the circumstances and they were able to adapt and be themselves. So you can be but, having said that, it is what is.
“We’ll judge the game for what it is and we’ll judge the personnel for the performance that they put out there. We’ll look at how we were collectively together, most importantly, and we’ll make some decisions at the beginning of the England week.”
Joey Carbery was afforded the first 53 minutes before being replaced just after missing his third conversion in a row, and there appeared to be a better shape to Ireland’s attack after Johnny Sexton’s arrival, but Farrell countered: “I think it’s a little unfair on Joey. It’s not just down to Joey. Obviously Johnny played very well. I thought Craig played very well when he came as well. He sped the game up a little bit.
“It isn’t just down to the halves, it’s down to the whole of the backline really to see where the space but, having said that, that’s why it’s so important for Joey to start the game today so he could feel the preparation going into the game and handle the situations in the first half, rather than coming on for the last 10 minutes. It’s priceless for him.”
