| Venue: Twickenham Date: Saturday, 12 March Kick-off: 16:45 GMT |
| Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Ulster; text commentary and highlights on BBC Sport website and mobile app. |
“They beat us and they beat us up.”
His Ireland side, full of momentum after an autumn win over the All Blacks, had been brought to a juddering halt. The opposition were an unfazed England side that had finished fifth in the previous year’s Six Nations.
Physicality had bridged the gap. Brute power had upset the odds.
That was the verdict. And that was 2019.
Three years on, the approach to Saturday’s Twickenham meeting is eerily familiar.
Once again, Ireland are upwardly mobile; their smart, quick rugby straining defenses with a blizzard of options and different plays.
And England, as in early 2019, are groping in the dark. Fans try and plot progress from a pebbledash mix of performances. Players point to moments in matches, rather than offering a clear 80-minute vision. Where they stand in the world order remains frustratingly unclear.
Amid the doubt and uncertainty, the same spirits that haunted Schmidt in the 2019 Aviva aftermath have been summoned once again.
The mood music from the England camp has all been heavy metal.
“They haven’t played a game as physical as this for a long time,” promised coach Eddie Jones.
“Big lads putting in big shots and big carries,” said center Henry Slade when asked what the current team could learn from their past success.
It’s not just blind bluster. There is more evidence to suggest route one is the surest way to victory against Ireland.
Eleven of Ireland’s starting XV play their provincial rugby together at Leinster, including six of the eight forwards.
You can see Ireland’s cohesion in well-worn running lines, the array of intricate attacking moves, the instinctive way players feed off each other. By contrast, England’s starting XV is drawn from eight Premiership clubs.
But, the Leinster connection also gives a glimpse of underbelly.
Because Leinster’s European Champions Cup campaigns have ended in similar ways over the past three seasons. Each time, La Rochelle and Saracens’ powerful packs squeezed them into submission.
Could Ireland’s attacking patterns be similarly scattered at Twickenham?
Perhaps. France’s relentless carries eventually sapped Ireland’s spirit in Paris a month ago after all.
But England are not France. Not by a long way. Through a mix of accident and design, Saturday’s team is built for a different game.
| 2016 | 1st (Grand Slam) |
| 2017 | 1st |
| 2018 | 5th |
| 2019 | 2nd |
| 2020 | 1st |
| 2021 | 5th |
The slighter, swifter Sam Simmonds starts at eight after Alex Dombrandt’s brush with Covid.
Tom Curry’s time on the ball will be eaten up by repelling Tadhg Beirne and Peter O’Mahony at the breakdown.
Manu Tuilagi’s latest injury absence robs England of the midfield punch Bundee Aki gives Ireland. Max Malins will be giving up height and weight to James Lowe on the wing.
The cavalry looks to be weighted the visitors’ way as well, with four recent British and Irish Lions – Iain Henderson, Jack Conan, Conor Murray and Robbie Henshaw – on the Ireland bench.
Instead England will have to rely on something else. Something that, behind the headline-grabbing kilowatt power, was there in spades in the 32-20 win in Dublin in 2019.
You could see it in the opening 90 seconds. The accuracy of Jamie George’s line-out throw over the back. The ambition in Owen Farrell’s mis-pass to Elliot Daly. The ruthlessness of Jonny May’s finish.
England set about Ireland with power that day, but also with a plan. Backed into a corner, England came out fists raised and a clutch of jokers up their sleeve as well.
George, one of six survivors from that win, has hinted that something similar maybe brewing this time around.
“We are going to throw a few different things at Ireland and try and make them uncomfortable,” I told Rugby Union Daily earlier this week.
“There is a sense of excitement around that, there really is.”
If they back up that talk with a win, it could be a turning point. A performance, like in Dublin three years ago, that gives direction, impetus and belief to a team in need of all three.
A victory that could forge them together and fire them towards a final-weekend match against France, with proof of what’s possible.
The alternative is stark. Rather than a title decider in Paris, a defeat would have Jones’ side scrapping to avoid a second-straight fifth place finish.
It was a defeat by Ireland that confirmed last year’s dismal standing. The morning after a tame 32-18 defeat in Dublin, Jones bullied into his squad.
Over breakfast he told his players their credit had run out. All bets were off, all comers would be considered. Ollie Lawrence, Ben Earl, Dan Robson, and Mako and Billy Vunipola were shuffled to the door and a revamped ‘New England’ was ushered in.
The fresh era still lacks a defining performance. Saturday, 18 months out from the start of France 2023, is high time it arrived.
Reference-www.bbc.co.uk