O’Connor: Ireland can ‘outplay’ England if forwards front up again

Leinster coach Matt O’Connor believes Ireland can “outplay” England at Twickenham next Saturday week as long as John Plumtree’s forwards can match their efforts from the opening pair of Six Nations wins against Scotland and Wales.

The Ireland forwards coach challenged his pack to attain greatness ahead of this year’s tournament and they have risen to that challenge so far with some outstanding work at line-outs, mauls and most notably at the breakdown.

The scrum, while hardly terrifying, has largely stood up well too and all those facets will need to be aligned in London against a big English unit which O’Connor knows well on an individual basis from his three years with Leicester Tigers.