Ireland Vs England Preview

Ireland take on England at the Aviva Stadium this weekend but before the main course , there are three other Ireland vs England clashes that take place today in Donnybrook and over in the RDS where the Ireland Legends face there English counterparts.

Tonight the Under 20s will try and deny England a Grand Slam the first of three games where the Grand Slam will be on offer unfortunately for Ireland they can only win it in one of the three games this weekend in Donnybrook where Paula Fitzpatrick and her charges will face an England side brimming with confidence.

Ireland haven’t played well in this Championship but have still managed to grind out some big results and set themselves up for a tilt at glory. Players like Kim Flood and Mairead Coyne have stepped up to fill the big shoes left behind by the injury to Niamh Briggs. Tom Tierney has worked on trying to develop the player depth within the senior team with a World Cup to happen later in the year in UCD and Belfast.

Tonight is a massive chance for this side to join the team of 2013 in winning a Grand Slam, no better way for them to do it than by beating England. England for their part are 4 from 4 in this Championship and will come to Dublin hell bent on denying Ireland the perfect way to end this Championship.

All roads lead to Donnybrook this evening and by the sounds of it there will nearly be a sell-out crowd to see the 20s and women take on England. With a good start Ireland make just sneak tonight’s game and get the weekend off to the right start.

Looking to tomorrow at 5pm, Ireland have made a number of big changes to the 23 that played Wales, Kieran Marmion come in to play alongside Jonathan Sexton, Iain Henderson partners Donnacha Ryan in the second row and the positional switch everyone wanted to see has happened where Rob Kearney has been ruled out with a knee injury and Jared Payne comes in for his first cap at full back having won all the rest of his caps at outside centre.

The loss of Conor Murray will have an impact on the way Ireland will play tomorrow and some of the changes to the starting 15 suggest that Schmidt will send his charges out to try and play around England and use directness at certain points during the game.

The hope from an Irish point of view is that all the harsh lessons of the defeats to Scotland and Wales can be learned from and that the much famed line out drive can rediscover the form they showed a few seasons ago under the guidance of John Plumtree. If this particular aspect of their play can fire tomorrow then Ireland may just have found a way to get past the juggernaut that is this England team.

Eddie Jones for his part has played the part of court jester this week to try and take the pressure off his side and the expectations that his team will complete a second straight Grand Slam is coming into view and I am sure there are certain nerves attached with that and if there is nothing Irish people like doing it’s spoiling a party and there is no better party to spoil than an English one.

They are 18 from 18 and are well on the way to setting new World record of 19 straight Test victories  , here’s hoping for the weekend that’s in it that Ireland find a way to stop England and finish the campaign on a high !!

By

Cian Mc Gibney

17/03/2017