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.

Ireland v England will be a game of family fortunes

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.

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