England v Ireland Match Preview

Both England and Ireland have had to endure torrid times by the press in the last couple of weeks after their showings in round two with Ireland, so totally outplayed by France, and England short of inspiration in Rome. If round two’s fixture in Paris set the tone for the rest of the competition, the match on Saturday at Twickenham will surely dictate the rest of the season for both teams.

Pragmatism ruled the day in Rome the last time England took to the field. Unlike the city itself, matches involving Italy in Rome are never beautiful, with attacking rugby put on the backburner as both packs tend to get bogged down into a scrappy arm wrestle. England team Manager Martin Johnson was quick to emphasise the number of try scoring opportunities that presented themselves, which England failed to capitalise on, contrary to what happened against Wales.

It may not have cost England the win against Italy, but a failure to capitalise on chances against Ireland will surely see them end up the losing side. Support runners need to present options for when the likes of Flutey, Tait or Monye cause havoc with searing breaks. If that happens, certain players need to take the blinkers off and look for those support runners outside them. Both aspects were mostly absent in Rome and will need to be better against an Ireland team looking to bounce back from an embarrassing loss two weeks ago.

Try scoring opportunities will have to be finished off better this weekend

Provided Mark Cueto is fit to play, after a battle with the stomach bug that’s been going around the England camp for a few weeks now, Johnson has named an unchanged XV, with the welcome additions of Lee Mears, Joe Wosley and Ben Foden providing impact off the bench.  It’s Johnson’s way to allow players the time to bed in and develop relationships and combinations together, particularly this close to a world cup. The time to experiment will surely be in the Summer tour to Australia and New Zealand in the Summer.

Ireland on the other hand have made a few changes to their starting line-up, some enforced, some not so. Rob Kearney’s injury will no doubt be a huge loss to the visitors, and he would surely have looked forward to countering with pace or the boot any ball kicked his way. You get the sense though that Geordan Murphy, although recently back from injury, will present a similar sort of threat. Rory Best takes over from banned Jerry Flannery, and Jonny Sexton replaces an out-of-sorts Ronan O’Gara for his first Six Nations start of his career. The other change sees fit-again Donncha O'Callaghan replacing the impressive in recent weeks Leo Cullen. John Hayes is set to be Ireland’s first centurion as he reaches 100 caps for his country on Saturday.

Wilkinson will be looking to prove the doubters wrong on Saturday

You get the impression a verbal slaughtering at the hands of the fans and media will do wonders for a team who are desparate to prove the doubters wrong. How often have we seen an England team, with a backs-to-the-wall mentality impress in the very fixture? If England manage the win on Saturday, it would be their best run in the tournament since a nine-match winning streak between 2002 and 2004. Martin Johnson clearly favours the consistent, letting a team develop together rather than chopping and changing personnel as a knee jerk reaction. He’ll now be looking to develop more consistency in the performances on the field.

Head to head: Jonny Wilkinson v Jonny Sexton is a battle of two fly-halves in vastly differing stages of their careers. Sexton is Ireland's golden boy in many eyes, the man to slip into the mantle of the waning O’Gara and steer Ireland's backs to their former fluency. Jonny Wilkinson was once England's golden boy, but now the sheen is off. Needless to say far more is expected of the World Cup winner, who holds 72 more Test caps than his counterpart. Saturday will come the test of whether the powers are on the wane or not.

England: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Lewis Moody, 6 James Haskell, 5 Steve Borthwick, 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Tim Payne
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Wilson, 18 Louis Deacon, 19 Joe Worsley 20 Paul Hodgson, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Ben Foden.

Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Shane Jennings , 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Andrew Trimble

Date: Saturday, February 27
Venue: Twickenham
Kick-off: 16.00 GMT
Weather: Dry, breezy, 8°C
Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France), David Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official: Carlo Damasco (Italy)