sport news Ireland have a formidable record under Andy Farrell and there is zero ... trends now
There was chaos outside the England team hotel in Surrey this week, with cones out and work going on. All around, people were stuck, not making progress – looking frustrated and impatient.
It has been a similar story on the other side of the gates of late; cones out, lots of work happening but no clear signs of anyone heading in the right direction. That must change on Saturday evening, when Ireland come thundering into Twickenham on a Grand Slam crusade. Steve Borthwick needs his home team to be able to ease off the brake and find some sudden momentum for this daunting Six Nations assignment.
The head coach admitted on Thursday that his players had been ‘weighed down’ by the England shirt during their defeat against Scotland at Murrayfield in the last round. That suggests there had been a burden of expectation felt within the squad and it had caused them to unravel.
There is no such burden on Saturday, on the basis that there is no expectation. Zero. Beyond the Red Rose camp itself and the staunch loyalty of the national team’s families and friends, there is a sense of universal English foreboding about what awaits against Andy Farrell’s imperious side. Rarely, if ever, can England have gone into championship fixture at their towering arena with public and pundits alike giving them so little chance of success.
The bookies make them 4-1 outsiders in a two-horse race at home and the odds make sense given how Ireland have swept to three convincing victories so far in this campaign, while England have just about scraped wins over Italy and Wales before falling apart in Edinburgh. If they make as many glaring errors today as they did in that last outing, these clinical opponents will bury them.
Prop Joe Marler (second right) hones his kicking skills as England take in Twickenham
Since their opening-night masterpiece win over France in Marseille, the Irish have appeared to be untouchable in their quest to become the first team in the Six Nations era to claim two consecutive clean sweeps. In theory, Slams are meant to be fiendishly difficult to achieve, but so far this one has been a veritable cake-walk for Farrell’s men. Now that the French are faltering, Ireland are operating on an entirely different plain to their European rivals – although Scotland may query that assertion.
Twickenham will stage a clash of cultures. In terms of team performance, it is a potential mismatch between English confusion and Irish cohesion. And in terms of how the sport is run in each country, it is a similar picture. After naming his line-up, Borthwick spoke candidly about how every other rugby nation would be jealous of Ireland’s joined-up system, with the union and four provinces co-ordinating player work-load, and strategic objectives, in a common cause.
At the top of the shiny edifice, Ireland have a
