{"id":299821,"date":"2026-02-15T19:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299821\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:55:10","slug":"englands-attacking-options-narrow-with-arundell-facing-ban-for-crunch-ireland-game-six-nations-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299821\/","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s attacking options narrow with Arundell facing ban for crunch Ireland game | Six Nations 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Borthwick is facing a selection headache as England seek to get their Six Nations campaign back on track against Ireland on Saturday, with Henry Arundell set for disciplinary action after his red card against Scotland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

England have promised an \u201chonest and emotional\u201d review into their dismal Calcutta Cup defeat before Borthwick decides how to configure his backline against Ireland, with Arundell facing the prospect of a suspension for his two yellow cards against Scotland.<\/p>\n

Tournament organisers have confirmed that a red card accrued for receiving two yellows will trigger the disciplinary process. Arundell\u2019s first yellow was shown for not releasing, the second for taking out Kyle Steyn in the air.<\/p>\n

Borthwick\u2019s wing options are already depleted with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso nursing a hamstring injury, and Arundell\u2019s expected unavailability would leave the head coach without any express pace for the visit of Andy Farrell\u2019s side. Elliot Daly is in the wider squad but has been out of form this season while Cadan Murley, who endured a torrid debut against Ireland 12 months ago, is another option.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, Borthwick could shelve his strategy of picking Tommy Freeman at outside-centre, restore the Northampton player to the wing and select Ollie Lawrence in midfield. Marcus Smith and George Furbank are also likely to come into contention given they both offer a creative spark that was sorely lacking against Scotland, who brought England\u2019s 12-match winning run to a juddering halt.<\/p>\n

Borthwick did his best to avoid overreacting in the aftermath of the defeat on Saturday but a third successive loss at Murrayfield has burst his side\u2019s bubble and has ended England\u2019s grand slam pursuit for another year. They will now have to beat Ireland \u2013 who got back to winning ways against Italy \u2013 to have any realistic hopes of securing a first Six Nations<\/a> title in six years.<\/p>\n

James Lowe leads the charge for Ireland, palming off Italy\u2019s Louis Lynagh in the home side\u2019s Dublin victory. Photograph: Evan Treacy\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ireland were made to work by an impressive Italy side before completing a 20-13 victory in Dublin at the weekend. The manner in which they were beaten on the tournament\u2019s opening night by France was further evidence that this Ireland side appears to be in decline but Borthwick was full of praise for Farrell\u2019s men. \u201cThey\u2019ve got such enormous amounts of talent,\u201d Borthwick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many starting British and Irish Lions do they have on their team? The whole Lions coaching team. They play together so often, given the Leinster influence and only coming from a limited number of teams. They\u2019re a very good team. They\u2019ve been at the top of the world rankings for a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

After tournament organisers opted to remove a fallow week from the competition this year, England have the opportunity to put things right immediately against Ireland. \u201cYou\u2019d hate to go into a fallow week now and be licking your wounds after a result like that,\u201d the scrum-half Alex Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s perfect we\u2019ve got another chance to go at Ireland on Saturday to right some wrongs. So, yes, it\u2019s perfect timing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The squad reconvened at England\u2019s Bagshot base on Sunday night with some uncomfortable reviews ahead before attentions turn to Ireland. Furbank is fit again after recovering from a head injury, as is Billy Sela, who replaces George Kloska.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always will try and review a game from a neutral standpoint,\u201d the centre Fraser Dingwall said. \u201cI think that after a win or a loss, you\u2019ve got to be incredibly honest so you kick on and grow and develop, irrespective of the result. As ever, there are parts that won\u2019t be as bad as you think they are, but there are parts that will be tough to watch back as well. You\u2019ve got to be honest and confront those in both senses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotional side will be around the contact stuff, the physicality stuff, the moments which are based upon desire and effort. But we\u2019ll be very clinical and direct when it comes to detail bits in how we can develop and what we are trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Borthwick is facing a selection headache as England seek to get their Six Nations campaign back on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-299821","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\/299821","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=299821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}