ENGLAND v IRELAND, TWICKENHAM, SATURDAY 2:10pm

Ireland and England meet at Twickenham as they both look to keep their Six Nations championship hopes alive.

Andy Farrell’s side come into the game off the back of an unconvincing victory over Italy at the Aviva Stadium last week, following a chastening opening day defeat in Paris.

England meanwhile opened with a dominant victory at home to Wales but suffered a shock defeat to Scotland in the Calcutta Cup last weekend and will be eager to bounce back with a statement performance in Twickenham.

ONLINE

Follow a live blog of England v Ireland on RTE.ie/sport and the RTÉ News App followed by report, reaction and player ratings.

RADIO

Listen to live commentary of England v Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1.

TV

England v Ireland (Saturday, 2.10pm Irish time) is live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player with coverage starting at 1pm.

Wales v Scotland (Saturday, 4.40pm) is live on Virgin Media.

France v Italy (Sunday, 3.10pm) is live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

Highlights of all of the weekend’s games are on Against The Head, Monday, 8pm, RTÉ2.

WEATHER

Saturday: Light rain and light winds are forecast in Twickenham come kick-off time. With temperatures of up to 13c it will at least be a mild day for supporters although previous heavy rain could make the pitch conditions tricky.

Ireland go into Saturday’s game as underdogs who are travelling in hope more than expectation.

Defeat would mean the end of their Six Nations championship hopes for another year while a win would keep them in the hunt mathematically but most likely needing England to do them a favour against the French on the final day.

Jack Crowley comes into the starting XV as one of five changes from the side that beat Italy with Sam Prendergast missing out on the match day squad entirely.

Prendergast pays the price for a poor performance against Italy last time out with Jack Crowley starting as a reward for an impressive display off the bench against the Azzurri. Ciarán Frawley is named among the replacements.

With some big name player in the Ireland squad who haven’t performed to their high standards yet this term, Farrell will be looking for his players to put in a big shift and having seen how Scotland disrupted the England kicking game last week, he’ll be hoping to repeat the trick in London.

Scotland’s runs from deep caused no end of problems for England and that’s an area that Ireland will be looking to target again.

Ireland skipper Caelan Doris has spoke of a need to ‘hunt down’ the hosts in Twickenham, promising a high tempo and aggressive approach.

Meanwhile England head coach Steve Borthwick has kept faith with wing Henry Arundell who received a red card against Scotland last weekend after he was shown two yellow cards.

Arundell is the current top try-scorer in the competition, having bagged a hat-trick against Wales as well as scoring England’s opener in Murrayfield and Borthwick believes that he can make the difference against Ireland.

Borthwick also hands a first start to Henry Pollock while Maro Itoje captains the Red Rose as he earns his his 100th cap on what is likely to be an emotional day given the recent death of his mother.

The England head coach is looking for a big reaction following their defeat in Murrayfield and Ireland have to be prepared to weather a fierce opening storm.

WHAT THEY SAID

Steve Borthwick (England head coach): “They [Ireland] have most of the Lions coaching team, half of the Lions Test team. They play together so often with so many players at Leinster, this squad has been together for a long period of time.

“I chat to our players about the coaches, trying to capture the lessons from [the Lions tour] last summer. About the coaching, players and they speak with such respect about them. It’s an exciting Test match and I am sure every England fan is looking forward to it.”

Caelan Doris (Ireland captain): “I think there’s always enough motivation playing against England and being over here as well is an added element anyway. For sure, there’s an eagerness to hunt them down, to get after them, to show what we’re about.

“We feel there’s an ability and plenty of potential within the team. We want to show as much of that tomorrow as possible.

“They’re obviously quite pragmatic with how they play the game and don’t want to play too many phases in their own half. So we’ll try to get that balance right as well.”

TEAMS

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 (capt).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Tom O’Toole, Finlay Bealham, Nick Timoney, Jack Conan, Craig Casey, Ciarán Frawley, Tommy O’Brien.

England: Freddie Steward; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Fraser Dingwall, Henry Arundell; George Ford, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Heyes; Maro Itoje (capt), 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.

OFFICIALS

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Assistant Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)

Assistant Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

FPRO: Mike Adamson (SRU)

LAST FIVE MEETINGS

Ireland 27-22 England (Aviva Stadium) 1 February 2025 – Six Nations

England 23-22 Ireland (Twickenham) 9 March 2024 – Six Nations

Ireland 29-10 England (Aviva Stadium) 19 August 2023 – World Cup warm-up

Ireland 29-16 England (Aviva Stadium) 18 March 2023 – Six Nations

England 15-32 Ireland (Twickenham) 12 March 2022 – Six Nations