{"id":302445,"date":"2026-02-17T11:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302445\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:45:09","slug":"reading-form-lines-for-ireland-v-england-is-like-reading-tea-leaves-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302445\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading form lines for Ireland v England is like reading tea leaves \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a trip to Twickenham next in the schedule for Ireland, Gerry Thornley is wondering what impact England\u2019s defeat by Scotland will have<\/a> on Steve Borthwick\u2019s team. Has it \u201cleft a few stones under the Sweet Chariot and made them more vulnerable?\u201d, or will the wounded lions take out their frustration on Ireland and, well, devour them? <\/p>\n

England, says Owen Doyle, were \u201csliced and diced\u201d, but he wasn\u2019t entirely convinced by Ireland in their outing against Italy. \u201cSomething tells me the better team lost,\u201d he says. How did referee Hollie Davidson fare?<\/a> \u201cVery good\u201d in the first half, but some of her second half calls were, he says, \u201cperplexing\u201d.<\/p>\n

In light of the length of Andy Farrell\u2019s injury list, Jamie Osborne\u2019s return from his own injury is timely<\/a>. Gerry talks to the Kildare man who has been producing \u201csecure and quietly effective performances\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the legend that is Keith Wood gives his thoughts on the current Irish team<\/a> during a wide-ranging chat with Donald McRae. \u201cWe are in a dip, without a shadow of doubt,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to bring younger, more powerful players through.\u201d <\/p>\n

In football, while the FAI is considering whether to play October\u2019s home Nations League fixture against Israel<\/a> on neutral territory, the Israelis are pushing for their team to be allowed play on their own turf once more. Gavin Cummiskey has the latest on a story that will, you suspect, run and run. And run. <\/p>\n

Our Gaelic games crew, meanwhile, pick out five things they learned from last weekend\u2019s league action<\/a>, Malachy Clerkin saluting Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney for \u201cbringing the word piggery to a wider audience\u201d. And Malachy is also trying to come to terms with the rare sight of Ciar\u00e1n Kilkenny being taken off<\/a> when a Dublin game was in the balance. <\/p>\n

But despite an unconvincing start to their league campaign, Se\u00e1n Bugler is still convinced that Dublin can win the All-Ireland this year<\/a>. \u201cWe have a lot of new lads that are finding their feet and really pushing on,\u201d he tells Gordon Manning. <\/p>\n

Cormac Comerford did well to find his feet at the Winter Olympics on Monday. Out of 95 starters in the slalom, only 44 made their way safely through a blizzard<\/a>, Comerford one of them. Ian O\u2019Riordan talks to him after his 31st place finish. <\/p>\n

In golf, Philip Reid looks ahead to this week\u2019s Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles where Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will be in the field, McIlroy aiming to shake off the rustiness<\/a> that saw his scorecard marred by three doubles and a triple bogey in Pebble Beach last weekend. <\/p>\n

Speaking of rustiness. \u201cReigning Cheltenham Gold Cup champion Inothewayurthinkin has to buck up his ideas<\/a> if he\u2019s to try to defend his title at the upcoming festival,\u201d writes Brian O\u2019Connor, the Gavin Cromwell-trained star beaten by a total of 94 lengths on his first two starts of this season. <\/p>\n

TV Watch: Ireland\u2019s do-or-die T20 World Cup meeting with Zimbabwe got under way this morning, Sky Sports Cricket\u2019s coverage continuing until 1pm, while BBC1, BBC2 and TNT Sports have yet more from the Winter Olympics through the day. And we also have the first legs of the Champions League knock-out play-offs, among the offerings Monaco v PSG (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1) and Benfica v Real Madrid (Premier Sports), both games kicking off at 8pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a trip to Twickenham next in the schedule for Ireland, Gerry Thornley is wondering what impact England\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,46616],"class_list":["post-302445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-sports-briefing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302445","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=302445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}