Key events
“This is embarassing!” emails Robert Jones.
Not if you’re Irish, Robert. Not if you’re Irish.
31 mins. This game is over already, and “Fields Of Athenry” is loudly being sung around Twickenham. Who predicted this after half and hour? If you say you did you are lying.
TRY! England 0 – 22 Ireland (Tommy O’Brien)
30 mins. Play restarts and moves left through Irish hands to Balacoune who has vacated his wing to line up in the left 13 channel, running free. He draws the last defender to him and pops to O’Brien to walk in.
Crowley converts.
REF INJURED!
29 mins. Ref Piardi sprints a long way to catch up to a Van Der Flier break and collapses, stating “I heard it pop”. He’s off! Pierre Brousset will take over ref duties and Craig Maxwell-Keys is handed the touch flag.
Also, Jamie George is on for Cowan-Dickie and Van Poortvliet has replaced Alex Mitchell. The scrum-half was injured, the hooker was not.
YELLOW CARD! Freddie Steward
28 mins. Before Gibson-Park wrestled clear to make the pass, Steward was illegally tugging at him at the ruck. Ref Piardi says it was cynical, denied a linebreak for the scrum-half and Steward should have 10 minutes to think about it.
TRY! England 0 – 15 Ireland (Robert Balacoune)
27 mins. First phase ball finds McCloskey on an oustanding, old school, crash ball angle in the 12 shirt. He races through the defensive line for a full 20 metres before Steward stops him, but Gibson-Park scoops up the ball and loops a pass to the wing for Balacoune to dive in the corner.
Crowley misses the two.
24 mins. Gibson-Park is away after a loose ball from a kick is muffed by Steward. He has the line at his mercy, but a blast on Piardi’s whistle stops him in his tracks as he judges Steward was played in the air by O’Brien! On the replays, it looked like it was two players competing in the air fairly to me, and England have got away with one. But if history has proven anything, it’s that what I reckon matters very little.
22 mins. There have been some decent moments for England with the ball, but overall they have been ramshackle in the extreme. The latest example is a lineout won, then a horrible pass that Mitchell has to dive on, then all his clearing players seal he ball off in the confusion.
Ref Piardi awards the penalty to Ireland, but Crowley pulls it left of the posts from the tee. Score remains the same.
TRY! England 0 – 10 Ireland (Jamison Gibson-Park)
20 mins. Ireland get the ball out of a scrum and fire it all the way to Balacoune, who is on the outside shoulder of Arundell and galloping. He pops the ball inside to O’Brien and two phases later Freeman is offside at the ruck, which is all the opportunity Gibson-Park needs to tap it quickly and race to the line from 15 metres. Intelligent stuff from the scrum-half as he knew all the England defenders were standing offside and couldn’t touch him.
Crowley converts.
18 mins. The ball is soon back in English hands, with more joy coming from strong carries from the forwards faciliated by fast ruck ball. Genge is again prominent, moving them up to the 5m line. Ford pops a pass to the prop once more, but it’s not accurate enough and goes loose to Lowe who boots it up the field and promptly collapses in pain.
He’s off, replaced by Tommy O’Brien.
16 mins. Ireland have the ball in and out quickly, but in the short time that was happening Genge forces a collape from his opposite number. Not that this matters a great deal as Ford shanks his kick touch-in-goal and ruins the penalty platform. Usually Engalnd’s banker, he’s not having a great game at all.
15 mins. Play is trapped in the middle third as both teams have some possession that they work through hands; some top drawer handling from both teams under pressure. Ireland have a glimpse of a chance to find Lowe, but the long pass from McCloskey is yoinked from the air by Freeman. A few phases later another English handling error gives a scrum to Ireland on the halfway line.
12 mins. A solid set of phases finally from England, and their power starts to show through a Pollock carry, then more from Lawrence and Genge to move up to the 5m line. They move the ball to the left, but it breaks down in the 13 channel and is hacked away by Balacoune, rolling into touch on the 10m line.
10 mins. Ford misses touch with a penalty that he sent deep towards Ireland’s right corner. That’s yet another error in this poor start from England. However they soon have the ball back from Osborne’s clearing kick.
PENALTY! England 0 – 3 Ireland (Jack Crowley)
8 mins. Another mangled possession from England as McCarthy storms through the lineout maul and rips the ball. Gibson-Park has a dash up the middle that forces the home defence offside. There’s nothing coming on the advantage and Crowley decides to cement the early advantage for his team onto the scoreboard.
6 mins. The scrum forms, and for a moment it appears England are about to be shoved backwards, but it wheels and Ref Piardi decides it’s due to Loughman walking around on the loose head side. Penalty England, which is cleared to touch by Ford.
4 mins. An anticlimax for all concerned as the scrum ends before it begins with England pinged for early engagement. Gibson-Park taps it quickly and finds a good touch in English territory that comes back on the green side after Cowan-Dickie can’t find his lineout target. Mainly because none of his players bothered jumping! What a mess.
The ball is moved left towards Lowe’s wing via Sheehan lurking in the 13 channel, but it’s Ireland’s turn to spill the ball forward. England have a scrum near their own 5m line.
2 mins. The clearing kick from Ireland is returned by England with some carries up to the Irish 22. Ford floats a cross-kick to the right touchline where Steward claims it, but he’s quickly wrapped up by Lowe and two phases later a knock-on in midfield hands a scrum to the visitors.
First test for what has been a very creaky Irish scrum in the tournament so far.
Kick Off!
George Ford puts his foot through it and we’re off and running
Officials today
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant Referee 1: Pierre Brousset (France)
Assistant Referee 2: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Television Match Official (TMO): Matteo Liperini (Italy)
Maro Itoje takes a huge ovation from his home crowd as he enters the arena alone on the occasion of his 100th appearance. The teams emerge soon after into a overcast but very still afternoon in south west London; the conditions are ideal for rugby.
It’s England captain Maro Itoje’s 100th cap today, his latest appearance in a brilliant career. At 31 years of age you imagine there are plenty more caps to come to add more lustre to his already achieved England all-time great status.
Henry Pollock starts his first international game today, and Rob Kitson has thoughts on it.
And the dropping altogether of Sam Prendergast is given some historical context here here by Brendan Fanning
You can send me all your thoughts on proceedings both prior to an during the match via the email. I look forward to reading them.
Team news
Changes galore, and notable ones at that, across both matchday squads.
Steve Borthwick hands fan and media darling (and bloody good player) Henry Pollock his first start in the back row, where he will be joined by the returning Tom Curry. In the backs Tommy Freeman returns to a wing berth at the expense of Tom Roebuck, which brings Ollie Lawrence back into the centres. The bench is a 6:2, with Jack Van Poortvliet and Marcus Smith as the backs options.
For Ireland, Andy Farrell has decided his favourite child Sam Prendergast is not for this fixture and is left out of a matchday squad for the first time since his debut in November 2024. Whatever your opinion of his abilities, this must be incredibly tough for the young bloke. Jack Crowley returns to the starting 10 shirt and he will line up alongside Jamison Gibson-Park to marshall a backline that retains Rob Balacoune and James Lowe on the wings. Josh Van Der Flier is back at openside, and a late injury to Jack Conan promoted Cian Prendergast to a 5:3 bench that has Ciaran Frawley as out-half cover.
Teams
England
Freddie Steward; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Fraser Dingwall, Henry Arundell; George Ford, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan‑Dickie, Joe Heyes; Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum; Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Henry Pollock.
Replacements: Jamie George, Bevan Rodd, Trevor Davison, Alex Coles, Guy Pepper, Sam Underhill, Jack van Poortvliet, Marcus Smith.
Ireland
Jamie Osborne; Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe; Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson‑Park; Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.
Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Tom O’Toole, Finlay Bealham, Nick Timoney, Cian Prendergast, Craig Casey, Ciaran Frawley, Tommy O’Brien.
Preamble
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” were the parting words of John Lydon at the last ever Sex Pistols gig in 1977, before the lead singer moved on to his long fermentation into a middle England MAGA muppet. Fans of both these teams may be asking themselves some version of the same question.
England’s crowd must wonder what is the reality of their side. Are they the team of twelve undefeated matches and months and the growing confidence it brought, or that which looked so very second best at Murrayfield last week?
And what are Ireland’s followers to make of a head coach that delivered their finest moments, but appears to have either no discernible plan for how his side transitions into a newer era, nor a countenance that suggests he’s relaxed about it. Is Andy Farrell as great as previously thought when he can’t even be coherent about who should play 10?
With teams both taking the field today on the same record of played two, lost one in the tournament, a win today is a practical requirement to move towards a preferable finishing position in mid March. Wider than that there is some drifting to be arrested. England need to consign the loss to Scotland into the “blip” column, while Ireland must regulate their move towards dropping out of the top five in the world rankings via a performance that demonstrates this is not as inevitable as it feels after two rounds.
Come the end, nobody may actually feel cheated, but someone will definitely feel defeated. Find out who with me over the next few hours.
