Andy Farrell relishing chance to test Ireland attack against England blitz

THREE DOWN, TWO TO GO: Ireland head coach Andy Farrell during the post match press conference. Pic Credit: Dan Sheridan, Inpho.

Andy Farrell is relishing the opportunity to test his Ireland attack against England’s new blitz defence when the Guinness Six Nations rivals meet at Twickenham in 12 days.

Ireland remain on course for back-to-back Grand Slams following their 31-7 bonus-point victory over Wales in Dublin on Saturday as they clocked up an 18th consecutive home win.

Farrell’s team also equalled England’s record of 11 consecutive championship victories and will travel to London to face a side which suffered its first loss of the 2024 competition in a 30-21 Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday night.

The Ireland head coach will not be expecting that to diminish the threats Steve Borthwick’s side will pose on their home ground and he predicted that the English will “go harder” in round four after another two weeks working on their new blitz defence being implement by new assistant coach Felix Jones.

The former Munster and Ireland full-back joined Borthwick’s backroom after helping South Africa to back-to-back World Cup successes last autumn and England are getting to grips with the new system.

“It’s certainly different. It’s something, we know it’s the South African defence and I know that Felix will constantly try and put his stamp on implementing that. So there’s always going to be teething problems at the start but they’ll go harder, there’s no doubt about that because that’s their philosophy.

“It’s good, It’s exciting because Wales have a different defence. Italy are a different defence and France are as well, so that’s the best part of the game. Everyone’s got their own ideas we’ll look forward to trying to take that on.”

Ireland will go into the game with a six point lead over nearest rivals Scotland at the top of the Six Nations standings and will face the Scots in Dublin on March 16 for a possible shot at a second successive clean sweep but first they have to get past their Twickenham test.

"It sets it up nicely because we've earned the right to get to that point,” Farrell said. “But going to Twickenham, everyone knows how difficult a task that is. We will certainly be looking forward to that after the fallow week."

Farrell will hope to have Hugo Keenan back from the knee injury the full-back sustained in win over Italy in round two. Keenan missed the Wales game with Ciaran Frawley deputising and looking comfortable in his first Six Nations start, marking the occasion with Ireland’s third try, a smart finish running a good line onto a laser pass form Jamison Gibson Park in the 65th minute.

The head coach described Frawley’s performance at 15 “solid” and also delivered a positive update on back-rower Josh van der Flier, who had been removed for a Head Injury Assessment on 51 minutes and did not return.

Josh had an HIA but passed that, so he was a substitution, (that’s) why he didn’t come back on,” Farrell said.