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We can do it!<\/p>\n
After a loss and a win in their opening two games of the 2026 Six Nations, Ireland face England this Saturday (kick-off, 2.10pm).<\/p>\n
Here is the 23 we would like to see line out at Twickenham.<\/p>\n
Front row<\/p>\n
The prop situation is practically a lottery at this stage.<\/p>\n
After a steady showing against France, Jeremy Loughman looked a lot weaker in the scrum on Saturday, as did Tom Clarkson.<\/p>\n
The Tom O’Toole experiment hasn’t worked in the past but we saw some green shoots at the end of the Italy game, where he held up a few crucial Irish scrums.<\/p>\n
Seeing Tadhg Furlong getting lifted off his feet at the Aviva was a sorry sight, but you feel that if Ireland are to pull off an upset in Twickenham, he needs to be backed.<\/p>\n
R\u00f3nan Kelleher had impact off the bench on the weekend, but Tom Stewart is still knocking at the door, and bringing in in-form Ulstermen worked quite nicely against the Azzurri.<\/p>\n
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Second row<\/p>\n
If James Ryan can stay on the right side of the referee on Saturday, he deserves to keep his place.<\/p>\n
Both he and Joe McCarthy bring much-needed aggression, but the latter has been loose with his play in the last couple of games.<\/p>\n
Edwin Edogbo showed up well in his debut, and clearly offers more than the other locks at the scrum and is the second best over the ball after Tadhg Beirne.<\/p>\n
Back row<\/p>\n
There are a few tough decisions here to make for Andy Farrell and his backroom team.<\/p>\n
The back row of Cormac Izuchukwu, Caelan Doris and Jack Conan impressed, but so did replacements Tadhg Beirne and Nick Timoney.<\/p>\n
There is also the question of Josh van der Flier, who you would back to return with fire in his belly after a disappointing outing in Paris.<\/p>\n
Half-back<\/p>\n
Both starting half-backs had days they would rather forget in Dublin, and Farrell is likely to change.<\/p>\n
The big question is which out-half to put on the bench.<\/p>\n
Given Harry Byrne’s goal kicking, he makes sense as a finisher.<\/p>\n
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Centre<\/p>\n
Stuart McCloskey is now Ireland’s best player of those who are fit.<\/p>\n
Ringrose has been out of form on both sides of the ball, but Farrell’s lack of change in the midfield over the past year or two means that it is too risky to bring in fresh blood for such a big game.<\/p>\n
Jamie Osborne is also needed at fullback.<\/p>\n
Back three<\/p>\n
James Lowe, Robert Baloucoune and Jamie Osborne were excellent individually and as a unit against Italy.<\/p>\n
Ireland 23 vs England:<\/p>\n
Tom O’TooleDan SheehanTom ClarksonEdwin EdogboJames RyanCormac IzuchukwuCaelan DorisJack ConanJamison Gibson-ParkJack CrowleyJames LoweStuart McCloskeyGarry RingroseRobert BaloucouneJamie Osborne<\/p>\n
Replacements: 16. Tom Stewart, 17. Michael Milne, 18. Tadhg Furlong, 19. Joe McCarthy, 20. Tadhg Beirne, 21. Nick Timoney, 22. Craig Casey, 23. Harry Byrne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We can do it! After a loss and a win in their opening two games of the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-299778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}