Preview: Twickenham twists and turns but Ireland need to be spot on

SPOT ON: Jack Crowley during an Ireland Rugby captain's run at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.

THINGS change quickly in sport and international rugby is as fluid as any. So for a fixture that was once seen as pitting a fast-rising England against a waning Ireland, the results of last weekend’s Six Nations round two match-ups have softened the lens through which Saturday's Allianz Stadium encounter must be viewed.

That is not to say Ireland have shaken off the underdog tag coming into this 2026 renewal but England’s Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh seven days ago has sown some seeds of doubt in the home side and given some extra bite to a sense within the Irish camp.

That Murrayfield defeat by an adventurous Scottish team, themselves on the rebound following a loss to Italy in Rome in round one, was validation of a coach and players sticking to the guns and maintaining their commitment to expansive, wide-wide rugby. It also throws the spotlight on Ireland’s ability to emulate their game plan.

Like Ireland against the Italians last Saturday, the Scots managed to beat the English with a creaking scrum, their electrifying backline sparked by fly-half Finn Russell proving the undoing of their auld enemy as their 12-Test winning run was brought crashing to a halt.

Andy Farrell’s selection of Jack Crowley at fly-half ahead of Sam Prendergast is on the back of the Munster 10’s impressive showing off the bench last weekend with the scores level at 10-10. In tandem with fellow replacement and half-back partner Jamison Gibson-Park, Crowley made an instant impact, instigating the multi-phase try for Rob Baloucoune that head coach Farrell described as one of the best scored by his team.

It gives Ireland hope they have the firepower to pose problems at Twickenham with Gibson-Park and Crowley promoted from the bench to starting roles alongside last week’s fellow benchwarmers Tadhg Furlong and Tadhg Beirne, with Josh van der Flier the other change.

Farrell said his side is ready for anything that's going to be thrown at them as they brace for the inevitable English reaction to defeat in Scotland that was not part of the script as far as their head coach Steve Borthwick was concerned.

Borthwick had signposted England’s desire to plot a winning course through their campaign to set up a Grand Slam decider with France in Paris on the final weekend next month. That his players failed to deliver at the second hurdle will provide the fire in their bellies to mark captain Maro Itoje’s 100th cap for his country with a bounceback victory.

That Ireland will enter Twickenham with the baggage of a humbling 36-14 defeat to France on their previous away day adds to the size of the challenge and assistant coach Johnny Sexton is hoping the shellshock of that 29-0 bombardment by Les Bleus inside 46 minutes has receded and the lessons from the Stade de France have been learned and will be applied in an equally daunting arena.

"Any time you go to Twickenham is a huge challenge, no matter where you are or what stage of a World Cup cycle it is,” Sexton. “It's always a big challenge. I think we'll take some good learnings from the French game. It's important we learn some lessons from that. And make sure we turn up, put our game plan into place, but also have the intent that we need to have when we go to an away venue like this."

Inside centre Fraser Dingwall has seen enough of his opponents up close in Northampton Saints’ recent Champions Cup dust-ups with Leinster and Munster and the suggestion that Ireland are a spent force was dismissed out of hand.

“That’s not something we’ve thought about at all, to be honest,” Dingwall said. “They’ve still got an incredible group of players and they’re still an incredible team, so there’s still a massive challenge coming.

“We haven’t looked at their form or how they’re viewed at the moment. Within this competition, each team is gunning for each game. We’re really excited. When you've played Leinster a few times, other Irish teams, it largely begins with how connected they are. You look at their attacking shape, it's based a lot off connection, and how they can kind of put people pressure through their shapes, and how tight and connected they are. So you imagine it falls back on that.

“I'm sure their set-piece, and their physicality plays into a huge part of that. And obviously they've got a lot of speed. And that speed also kicks in around speed of ball from breakdowns, with how Gibson-Park likes to work.

“So there's a lot of elements to their game, that when they've got it right, they've been quite a power in international rugby. There's threats and how we can go after those.”

Dingwall may have unwittingly hit the nail on the head. Ireland, this Ireland missing so many key components through injury, need to get it absolutely spot on if they are to have any hope of success.

Get it a fraction wrong and it could be a very difficult afternoon.

ENGLAND: F Steward (Leicester Tigers); T Freeman (Northampton Saints), O Lawrence (Bath), F Dingwall (Northampton Saints), H Arundell (Bath); G Ford (Sale Sharks), A Mitchell (Northampton Saints); E Genge (Bristol Bears), L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), J Heyes (Leicester Tigers); M Itoje, capt (Saracens), O Chessum (Leicester Tigers); T Curry (Sale Sharks), B Earl (Saracens), H Pollock (Northampton Saints).

Replacements: J George (Saracens), B Rodd (Sale Sharks), T Davison (Northampton Saints), A Coles (Northampton Saints), G Pepper (Bath), S Underhill (Bath), J van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers), M Smith (Harlequins).

IRELAND: J Osborne (Leinster); R Baloucoune (Ulster), G Ringrose (Leinster), S McCloskey (Ulster), J Lowe (Leinster); J Crowley (Munster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); J Loughman (Munster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster); J McCarthy (Leinster), J Ryan (Leinster); T Beirne (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris, capt (Leinster).

Replacements: R Kelleher (Leinster), T O’Toole (Ulster), F Bealham (Connacht), N Timoney (Ulster), J Conan (Leinster), C Casey (Munster), C Frawley (Leinster), T O’Brien (Leinster).

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy).