{"id":302357,"date":"2026-02-17T10:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302357\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:27:07","slug":"six-nations-2026-what-changes-might-england-make-for-ireland-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302357\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Nations 2026: What changes might England make for Ireland game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry Arundell’s red card at Murrayfield and subsequent potential ban<\/a> could open up a spot on the left wing.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old received two yellow cards on Saturday – the second for dangerously taking a player out in the air – and may miss the game against Ireland.<\/p>\n

Fit-again centre Ollie Lawrence came into the campaign with a knee injury, which helped prompt Tommy Freeman’s switch from the wing to outside centre.<\/p>\n

Freeman is usually deployed on the right wing but has played on the left, starting there in England’s last win over Ireland in 2024.<\/p>\n

Given England’s struggles in the air against Scotland, a swap back to the wing seems logical because of Freeman’s aerial dominance.<\/p>\n

But establishing the Northampton Saint at 13 has been a clear goal of the England coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Would a like-for-like swap with Elliot Daly be more beneficial for Freeman’s long-term growth as a centre? Or now that Lawrence is fit, is he better deployed back at centre, allowing Freeman to return to the wing?<\/p>\n

Tom Roebuck struggled to impose himself in the air against Scotland – a rarity during his time in an England shirt – which could still open up a spot for Daly, even if Lawrence comes into the centre and Freeman moves out.<\/p>\n

Wingers Cadan Murley and Ollie Hassell-Collins, who would need to be called into the squad, are also sharp finishers and scored in England A’s recent win over an Ireland XV.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I stand by what I said last week. I wanted to see Ollie Lawrence at 13 and Fraser Dingwall at 12, with a back three of Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman and Freddie Steward,” former England wing Ugo Monye told BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly.<\/p>\n

“If you want to play so heavily on this kicking game, then select your best wingers for it.”<\/p>\n

Murley endured a tough debut against Ireland in last year’s Six Nations, while Hassell-Collins was dropped after the opening two rounds of the 2023 tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Henry Arundell’s red card at Murrayfield and subsequent potential ban could open up a spot on the left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-302357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302357","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=302357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}