{"id":389425,"date":"2026-04-09T07:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389425\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T07:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T07:25:09","slug":"ireland-focused-on-daunting-task-of-facing-england-at-twickenham-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/389425\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland focused on daunting task of facing England at Twickenham \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a daunting fixture at the best of times, but Emily Lane insists that Ireland<\/a> are excited to be kick-starting their Women\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> campaign against world champions England at Twickenham this Saturday (kick-off 2.25pm, live on RT\u00c9 2).<\/p>\n

With more than 70,000 tickets already sold, there is due to be a record crowd for a Women\u2019s Six Nations fixture in attendance. This represents a significant increase on the 48,778 spectators that passed through the turnstiles when these sides last faced each other at Twickenham in the fourth round of the 2024 championship. <\/p>\n

Lane didn\u2019t feature in that particular outing two years ago. And the scrumhalf will only find out on Thursday if she has made the matchday 23 that is selected by head coach Scott Bemand. <\/p>\n

\"\"Are Leinster champions cup contenders\/how have things gone this badly wrong for Munster?<\/p>\n

They will certainly go into the game as underdogs against a side whose most recent Women\u2019s Six Nations defeat was back in March 2018, but Cork native Lane stressed they will do everything within their powers to make it a tough battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no denying, it\u2019s going to be a really, really tough game, but I think getting to play in front of 75,000 is something that doesn\u2019t happen very often. We are really excited to do that and I think we\u2019ve got such a good group … a good mix of young and old,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just have to stop their [England\u2019s] momentum, I think. Once they get that purple patch, they can push on, but it\u2019s just trying to make sure that we keep the heads. Stick to the game plan and trust that our game plan is in place for a reason. We just have to make sure that we just don\u2019t lose the heads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they do score … you\u2019ve got to reset. You don\u2019t win the game until the 80th minute. It\u2019s just staying in it until then. I know last year we held them to it for the first 50 minutes and it\u2019s just making sure that we get that 80-minute performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

While they will be eager to leave a lasting impression on their away games against England and France, Ireland also have their sights set on accumulating as many points as possible from their three home encounters in the 2026 championship.<\/p>\n

Following on from showdowns with Italy at Dexcom Stadium in Galway on April 18th and Wales at Affidea Stadium in Belfast on May 9th, Ireland are also set to face Scotland at the Aviva Stadium in the final round on May 17th.<\/p>\n

Although Ireland previously faced Italy at the venue in a game that served as a double-header with the men\u2019s fixture, the fixture will make history as the first stand-alone women\u2019s rugby international to take place at the home of Irish rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to the home games. That\u2019s where the Irish fans come into their own and that\u2019s where we can come into our own as well. It has kind of been a bare minimum for us this year, to get those three home wins,\u201d added Lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so lucky that we get to travel around the country. To get to Galway … Up to Belfast and then finally in the Aviva. I think we\u2019ve all been looking forward to that, but trying not to get too far ahead. We\u2019re really just focusing on this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a daunting fixture at the best of times, but Emily Lane insists that Ireland are excited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1254,43,123979],"class_list":["post-389425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-womens-rugby","tag-news","tag-women-s-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389425","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=389425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}