Ireland v England will be a game of family fortunes

They sat side by side on the same subs bench on a summer’s evening long ago, father and son far from the madding crowd in the English countryside.

Now, nine years later, they are one more win away from the ultimate in familial strife: Farrell vs Farrell, an inspirational version of the Oscar-winning film Kramer vs Kramer, a duel for the custody not of a child victim of divorce but the biggest prize in European rugby.

Ireland-England in Dublin on St Patrick’s weekend is heading remorselessly to its projected winner-take-all climax and the subplot to beat them all. When Andy Farrell sat on that bench alongside his 16-year-old son, neither could have imagined that it would come to this.