Laying down a marker to making it big in Japan

Having established that today’s summer showdown at Twickenham is about as far removed from a “warm-up” as a summer showdown can be, both the English and Irish camps have also made clear that this is a Test match that dare not be treated in isolation of the bigger picture.

For all the talk of the past two match-ups in the Six Nations, the first dominated by Ireland at Twickenham to secure the 2018 Grand Slam, the second last February when England gained their vengeance in brutal fashion, the respective head coaches have been at pains to point out that this is just another building block towards the great objective of hitting the ground running when their respective World Cup pool campaigns get under way in Japan next month.

“The focus is very much on ourselves,” England boss Eddie Jones said yesterday, and opposing head coach Joe Schmidt made similar noises when he revealed his hand as Ireland ended their warm-weather training week on Portugal’s Algarve, insisting that today’s game was all about the process of reaching the point whereby his team start strongly against Scotland in Yokohama on September 22.

Yet the elephant in both dressing rooms this afternoon is that this has all the makings of a full-blooded dust-up between the oldest of rivals in a standalone fixture that provides plenty of motivation in and of itself.

So just as England’s revenge mission in Dublin last February was fuelled by their meek resistance at Twickenham the previous St Patrick’s Day, Ireland will be eager to atone for their terrible start at the Aviva when the Six Nations title defence floundered at the first fence and left Schmidt’s team “a bit broken from the fallout”, in his own words.

Schmidt does not expect a similar reaction and if defeat comes Ireland’s way today, it will have little bearing on his team’s gathering momentum for the World Cup.

“Every game is a new day,” Schmidt said. “I think we’ve just seen that in recent times. The Wallabies had their record victory (over the All Blacks), 47-26, and then suddenly it’s 36-0 the following week.

You saw England with a big win over Wales and then a very skinny result for Wales on the back of what has become a law change now in that you actually have to wait for a HIA player to be replaced.

“We’ve seen those swap-arounds, that demonstrates just how different every day can be in a Test match. You’ve got Scotland playing France at the weekend, Gregor (Townsend, Scotland coach) has made a lot of changes and I wouldn’t be surprised if that swung. It’s definitely going to be a lot closer but if Scotland won, it wouldn’t really surprise me because they’ve got the firepower to win it.

“Each week, as we get closer, I’m sure you’ll see things swing a little bit with different selections, different things being trialled. We trialled a few things during the Six Nations because we knew how tight this timeframe was going to be with four matches, we didn’t want to be trying to fit everything into just these four weeks.

“I think there’s always a risk of losing confidence if you don’t get a result but we would be less result-focused than process-focused. We’d look at what we did well, what we need to do better, and whether we win or lose we’re still looking at those things and trying to make sure we do things better, as well as trying to maintain and even fine-tune the things we did well.”

Both coaches have named strong teams to suggest a ramping up in preparations now their opening games are just a month away.

This is England’s penultimate run, they face Italy in Newcastle on September 6 while Ireland have a back-to-back with Wales, visiting Cardiff next Saturday and then in Dublin on September 7.

Schmidt did concede a victory against the old enemy today would give Ireland’s pre-tournament confidence a further shot in the arm.

“It would be a real boost. The last time we played there, it was minus five degrees. There’s very much a turnaround with 28C expected, so can we keep the heat on them? I’d certainly love to see it.

“It would give us a little bit of momentum. It would give us a little bit of confidence. I don’t think we’re down on confidence. I think there’s a realisation that we worked our way through the Six Nations, we didn’t get a few things right for sure, we experimented a little bit and there’s still a little bit of experimentation you’re going to see on Saturday when we mix things up a little bit.

“Because that is still the most important thing — no one’s going to throw any accolades at this team for winning on Saturday and losing against Scotland on the 22nd of September. For us, we’re of that same mind — it is all about what happens in four weeks’ time, not what happens in this week.”

Yet there also comes that realisation that this is not a day for holding back. There may be scores to settle but there are also World Cup places to fight for, particularly for those fringe players such as Jean Kleyn at lock and fly-half Ross Byrne who have been handed a golden opportunity to book their seats on the plane for Japan.

Schmidt also pointed out that while this has been a fixture that has long carried a damaging attrition rate, trying to stay out of harm’s way with a World Cup in mind can also prove counter-productive, however much both coaches want to escape with as few casualties as possible.

“We’re all trying to play the long game but be competitive in the short term,” Schmidt concluded, nicely teeing up an intriguing battle this afternoon.

ENGLAND:

E Daly (Saracens); J Cokanasiga (Bath), M Tuilagi (Leicester), O Farrell (Saracens) - captain, J May (Leicester); G Ford (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), J George (Saracens), K Sinckler (Harlequins); M Itoje (Saracens), G Kruis (Saracens); T Curry (Sale), S Underhill (Bath), B Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), M Vunipola (Saracens), D Cole (Leicester), C Lawes (Northampton), M Wilson (Newcastle/Sale), W Heinz (Gloucester), P Francis (Northampton), J Joseph (Bath).

IRELAND:

R Kearney (Leinster); J Larmour (Leinster), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Stockdale (Ulster); R Byrne (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster) - captain, T Furlong (Leinster); I Henderson (Ulster), J Kleyn (Munster); P O’Mahony (Munster), J van der Flier (Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster).

Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster), J McGrath (Leinster), A Porter (Leinster), D Toner (Leinster), T Beirne (Munster), L McGrath (Leinster), J Carty (Connacht), A Conway (Munster).

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)