All revved up for England

PETER STRINGER doesn't need anybody to tell him how difficult a place Twickenham can be to get a result.

In 2000, he sat on the bench as Ireland took a terrible roasting from a rampant English XV. And it was in the same year, again at Twickenham, that Munster suffered a heartbreaking defeat by Northampton in the Heineken Cup final. He has yet to win there and is under no illusions as to the size of the task awaiting himself and his teammates tomorrow.

Peter is in direct opposition to Matt Dawson, a mercurial figure. He is a dangerous customer behind a winning pack and Stringer accepts he will have his hands full dealing with Dawson's sniping, darting runs. He is in no way intimidated by the prospect.

"Obviously, I've seen him play and know what he's about and so does everybody else in the team," says Stringer. "You just have to concentrate in and around the ruck all the time or he will look to have a go. We must look to put them under pressure at 8, 9, 10, get the half-backs under a bit of pressure, just like any team will try do to us."

Stringer is honest and realistic enough to acknowledge that "there is always room for improvement" and that things didn't always go his way against France and Wales.

"Paris was tough and I suppose Wales was a bit easier from the point of view that they didn't put us under as much pressure as the French", he reasoned. "I certainly feel there's a lot more in me. Hopefully we'll have the pack playing well again. That makes it so much easier for a scrum-half to clear and control the ball."

Stringer earns his 44th cap tomorrow having picked up his first against Scotland in 2000 along with, among others, his long-time half-back partner Ronan O'Gara. With the exception of the tour game against the USA in 2000, when he was rested, he was ever-present until the Scottish game in September, 2001. Warren Gatland was swayed by Stringer's alleged lack of a telling break off the side of scrum and ruck and he dropped him for Guy Easterby.

It was a terrible day for Irish rugby. Easterby was one of those to suffer most and was taken off before the end with Stringer restored to his rightful position. No management team has ever made that mistake again. He is now Ireland's most capped scrum-half.

One of his happiest memories is the defeat of England at Lansdowne Road towards the end of 2001 but, on the debit side, was the 45-11 thrashing at Twickenham in '02. It's one of many dire results that badly need avenging this time round.

"It's not mission impossible, but it's as hard as they come," he accepted. "Having France and England away meant it was always going to be a tough campaign. We set out with the intention of enjoying a good Six Nations with a win in France. It didn't happen. We bounced back against Wales, I thought we played quite well, but this is another huge step-up, meeting the best team in the world on their home ground is going to be extremely tough.

"Maybe they haven't played great so far, but they can step it up when they need to. We saw that against Scotland they didn't play particularly well at times but when it came down to it, they were able to put the scores away and stay well ahead of the opposition. They got a few lucky breaks but it's a mark of a good side that they wait and they wait and then they strike. They have quality players who can break from anywhere on the pitch and you really have to be on your guard. They are probably one of the best teams in the world at counter-attacking."

All of which suggests Ireland are in for another depressing day at Twickenham. But they go as underdogs, a situation they always relish, and to a man insist that they really believe they can pull off what would assuredly be the shock of the entire season.

Muses Stringer: "They're missing key men like Wilkinson and that helps. We're going over there believing we can win. Make no mistake about that. Irish teams have gone there in the past and taken some terrible beatings and I was close to or involved directly in some. It becomes a situation where you must believe that you can win and stick at it for 80 minutes because they can run in three or four tries in the last ten or 15 minutes which they have done against us too often in the past. That belief IS there. It HAS to be because if it's not, you're beaten before you get there. The game against Wales certainly helped, knowing we can score tries. They will have done a lot of analysis on us and it won't be as easy to get the rolling mauls going this time. Because we scored off first and second phase, we were quite fresh and weren't blowing as much as in other games. England will get involved in the mauls and get their hands in and try to upset us and disrupt our patterns. The last time I played there, the English crowd seemed so relaxed as if they were sure of the win. So it's not a nervous atmosphere in the sense that they are relaxed, and they break into their singing early in the game. It's up to us to get stuck in and to upset them. Not for 20 minutes but for the lifetime of the game.

"Let's not fizzle out as it goes on. We will go through our patterns and basically try to keep the ball rather than to have to defend for most of the match. We're going there to play rugby, to score tries and to win."