6 Nations 2014 - England v Ireland

With so little between the various 6 Nations sides this year, almost every game between a nation that isn’t Scotland or Italy has the feel of a monumental Championship decider and England’s clash with Ireland is going to go a long way towards shaping the destination of this year’s championship, even more so following France’s capitulation to Wales yesterday evening.

England’s own defeat to that side now has an especially aggravating feel about it given their less than perfect performance against Italy and their collapse last night, but their performance against a Scotland side admittedly so bad that there were calls in the general press for a demotion from the tournament unless things improved rapidly, was a step in the right direction for Stuart Lancaster’s young improving side that would still harbour serious title ambitions if able to win today.

Improvement seems to be the theme with Ireland as well. Declan Kidney’s men were beaten by England last year to signal the beginning of a slump that would last until Joe Schmidt took over but since then the former Leinsterman’s influence seems to have sparked a squad notorious for not living towards the standards that have been set by their sparkling club form of the obvious talent n their squad. As with his Leinster side that dominated Europe for three years, the composure and execution of their gameplans has been their greatest weapon, with two hugely impressive wins against Scotland and Wales coming all but entirely from set piece domination and their hugely impressive rolling maul as their main weapon on both occasions.

With Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray playing as well as they have done for a long time as pivots at the 9/10 axis, it has seen them totally in control of their games but they have come infront of their own fans and it remains to be seen not only how they deal with travelling to Twickenham but also how they deal with one of the strongest packs in the tournament.

England may have lost Dan Cole – and he is a big miss on more than one front – to injury but their young, improving pack has given them a platform in all but every game for the last two seasons and despite his absence, will be a far harder match for the Irish than either an off the pace Wales or abymsal Scotland will have provided. With Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury making a lock pairing equal to that of Paul O’Connell and Devin Toner which will make starting a drive hard for either side, while both backrows look equally matched, if not in the same skill areas with Ireland’s ferocity at the breakdown still in evidence.

For England, the challenge will be breaking Ireland down. Under Schmidt their tackle completion is above 90%, they domiantd the penalty count 16-9 against Wales, and have give just 37 penalties in the 5 games under Schmidt while also turning over Wales 18 times. If they have similar success today then Owen Farrell is likely to be short of opportunities to keep the scoreboard ticking over than those plans could be shelved much like they were when Wales destroyed them. However both sides look too evenly matched for anything of that sort, and ditching the 1-5 winning margins might offer the best value.

 Advice

1 pt Ireland to win by 1-5 points (5/1 general)

1 pt England to win by 1-5 points (9/2 general)