Guinness Six Nations Preview: England v Ireland

Aiming to join Guinness Six Nations leaders France on three wins out of three, Ireland enter the Twickenham cauldron with a steely determination to maintain their winning momentum against England, last year’s Rugby World Cup runners-up.

2020 GUINNESS SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP: Sunday, February 23

ENGLAND (5th) v IRELAND (2nd), Twickenham Stadium, 3pm (live Virgin Media One/UTV/ITV/RTÉ Radio 1/BBC Radio Ulster/BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra/FR2/DMAX/NBC/IRFU Live Blog)

Team News: Second row Devin Toner comes in to win his 70th international cap in the only change made to the Ireland team that carved out a 24-14 bonus point win over Wales at the Aviva Stadium a fortnight ago.

Head coach Andy Farrell initially announced an unchanged starting XV, but Toner was then bumped up from the bench following Iain Henderson’s withdrawal due to his wife Suzanne giving birth to a baby boy earlier this week.

Connacht’s Ultan Dillane joins the matchday 23, bringing back memories of his debut against England at Twickenham back in 2016. Recent debutant Caelan Doris, who is also on the bench, is set to win his second cap after his first appearance in green was prematurely ended by a head injury.

Jordan Larmour and Andrew Conway, two of the try scorers against Wales, form the back-three again with Jacob Stockdale, while Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw get their ninth start together in the Irish midfield.

Jonathan Sexton, the tournament’s top points scorer so far with 23 points, and Conor Murray complete an unchanged back-line, and there is a third consecutive Championship start for the front row trio of Cian Healy, Ulster hooker Rob Herring and Tadhg Furlong.

Toner joins his Leinster colleague James Ryan at lock, the pair’s last start together for Ireland coming against England twelve months ago. CJ Stander, who produced two man-of-the-match performances in recent weeks, anchors the back row alongside his Munster captain Peter O’Mahony and Josh van der Flier.

Speaking about being parachuted into the team for the London clash, Toner said: “It means the world to me. I’m delighted to get the chance. Obviously Hendy was picked to start and he’s had a fantastic tournament so far and very happy for him on the birth of a second child, so he’ll be at home getting some sleep – I doubt it!

“But it means the world to me to be playing again. If you had told me a couple of months ago that I’d be starting against England in Twickenham I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

“From our point of view, it starts in the pack, it starts with lineout, it starts with ruck. We know England are a hugely physical team and you can tell from the team that they’ve picked, with the two second rows on the bench and a very tall lineout.

“Obviously, (George) Kruis is one of the best lineout operators in the world at the minute, so they’re going to come after us in that area of the game and we’re going to have to be screwed on.”

Meanwhile, England head coach Eddie Jones has handed recalls to Ben Youngs and fit-again centre Manu Tuilagi as part of four changes to the side that won 13-6 against Scotland in a rain-lashed Edinburgh.

Tuilagi returns from a groin injury to partner captain Owen Farrell in midfield, while scrum half Youngs is set to become England’s second most-capped player of all-time, going ahead of former skipper Dylan Hartley (97 caps) on the list.

Joe Marler replaces the unavailable Vunipola at loosehead prop, and Courtney Lawes takes over from his Northampton Saints club-mate Lewis Ludlam at blindside flanker. Vunipola has travelled to Tonga for family reasons and misses the game.

The injured George Furbank (groin) makes way at full-back for Elliot Daly whose place on the left wing is filled by Bath’s Jonathan Joseph. It will be Joseph’s 50th England appearance and his first start as a winger.

Luke Cowan-Dickie and Charlie Ewels join the replacement forwards, Gloucester scrum half Willi Heinz drops back to the bench, and Saracens back rower Ben Earl, a debutant against Scotland, and Henry Slade, who has overcome an ankle injury, are other notable inclusions.

ENGLAND: Elliot Daly (Saracens); Jonny May (Leicester Tigers), Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), Owen Farrell (Saracens) (capt), Jonathan Joseph (Bath); George Ford (Leicester Tigers), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers); Joe Marler (Harlequins), Jamie George (Saracens), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins), Maro Itoje (Saracens), George Kruis (Saracens), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Sam Underhill (Bath), Tom Curry (Sale Sharks).

Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers), Will Stuart (Bath), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Charlie Ewels (Bath), Ben Earl (Saracens), Willi Heinz (Gloucester), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs).

IRELAND: Jordan Larmour (St. Mary’s College/Leinster); Andrew Conway (Garryowen/Munster), Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster), Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht), Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) (capt), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster), James Ryan (UCD/Leinster), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster), Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster), CJ Stander (Shannon/Munster).

Replacements: Ronan Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster), Dave Kilcoyne (UL Bohemians/Munster), Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster), Ultan Dillane (Galway Corinthians/Connacht), Caelan Doris (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), John Cooney (Terenure College/Ulster), Ross Byrne (UCD/Leinster), Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster).

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Romain Poite, Alexandre Ruiz (both France)
Television Match Official: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

Pre-Match Quotes: Jonathan Sexton (Ireland) –

That is what’s happened the last two times, England have just got on top of us in that (physicality) area and it’s very hard to come back from. So yeah, it’s at the forefront. We all have to be as physical as we ever have been.

“Cian Healy, James Ryan, Tadhg Furlong, CJ Stander – they’re pretty physical to me. Josh (van der Flier) is pretty physical. Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki. I think physically we can match them, but there are lots of things that need to go into matching them physically.

“It’s not just charging off the line, you need to be set early, you need to be in the right position first of all. Because if you are out of position, or you let them take the edge early and get over the gain-line then you’re going backwards and they’re coming on to the ball.

“I think if you look at our performance (against Wales), I think it was pretty clear that we made strides from the Scotland game. To do that this week would be harder because England would have seen that and they’ll come hard at us.

“We’ve got to figure out how to implement our game-plan on them. That’s where they’re really good, it’s at disrupting, and getting in amongst you and making it hard. So we’ve got to be really accurate.”

Eddie Jones (England) –

We’ve had a really good training week with Thursday probably our best session of the Guinness Six Nations. Ireland are a very good team, extremely well-coached. They are a team we respect a lot. They will bring their usual physicality and under Andy Farrell they’ve opened up their game a little bit.

“They are a tactically smart team. (Conor) Murray and (Johnny) Sexton, who have played 170 Tests between them, at nine and 10 will manage the game well. We’ve got to make sure we match their physicality and their emotion on the weekend.

“We trained at Twickenham Stadium in front of 10,000 fans last Friday and we can’t wait to get back out there in front of 80,000 people on Sunday afternoon.”

Pre-Match Links –

Head-To-Head: Ireland v England

In Pics: Ireland Captain’s Run At Twickenham

Van Der Flier: The Breakdown Battle Is Going To Be A Massive One

‘I’m Really Happy Where My Game Is At’ – Stockdale

Tickets Available Now For Ireland Open Training Session

Recent Meetings –

2017: RBS 6 Nations: Ireland 13 England 9, Aviva Stadium

2018: NatWest 6 Nations: England 15 Ireland 24, Twickenham Stadium

2019: Guinness Six Nations: Ireland 20 England 32, Aviva Stadium; Rugby World Cup Warm-Up: England 57 Ireland 15, Twickenham Stadium

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