England boss Steve Borthwick expecting a 'different game' against Ireland in this year's Six Nations

DIFFERENT GAME: England’s Maro Itoje and head coach Steve Borthwick at the launch of the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Championship at the Colosseum in Rome. Pic: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

England boss Steve Borthwick believes his team’s Twickenham victory over Ireland last season will have no bearing on next month’s 2025 Guinness Six Nations opener between the rivals.

Marcus Smith’s drop goal with the last kick of the fourth-round game last March delivered a 23-22 England win and derailed Ireland’s attempts to secure back-to-back Grand Slams.

Ireland did manage to defend their title by beating Scotland in Dublin on the final day of the championship a week later and now Borthwick’s men have an opportunity to end a historic three in a row bid when they go to the Irish capital on February 1.

Yet any suggestion the head coach will use a similar template for success was shot down as he previewed the championship at the Six Nations launch in Rome on Tuesday.

“Different game. A different game now,” Borthwick said. “You look at the way the England team has changed over the last six months after that point in time, you see the new caps we’ve got in our team. It’s very different.

“You start looking at what Ireland have, you know, 1100 caps in the team, they’re going to have an average age probably somewhere around 28, 29 and what are England going to have? We’re going to have an average age of 25, number of caps maybe 650, 700.

“And again, you’ve got an Ireland team that’s been one of the best teams in the world for so many years now, so well coached. So this is a different context where we’re at, at this point in time.”

Borthwick parried further questions about England’s potential threats to Ireland at Aviva Stadium in 10 days with praise for Irish rugby.

“We’re very conscious, we know we’re playing one of the best sides in the world. I’ve studied them, I’ve watched Leinster and you look at Leinster this season, their results, where clearly it’s a such a huge contingent of the Ireland team.

"So you look at Leinster’s results this season, they’ve just been in so many ways incredible and you see the strength of Irish rugby.

“I think it’s a team that keeps getting stronger. Now we know it’s a great challenge, we’re going to have to be very, very good. We’re also ready to jump in. We want to really jump into this game.

"This England team which we’ve got, I think it’s got a huge amount of potential for the future and what we want to do is jump into these contests we’ve got at the start of the Six Nations.”

The Englishman also rejected the idea that Ireland’s lineout, which misfired during last November’s Autumn Nations Series, was an area of vulnerability for their hosts to be targeted by the visitors.

“I think they’ve got phenomenal jumpers. You look at James Ryan and Beirne, they’re being coached by Paul O’Connell, this is an excellent forward pack.”