Eve Higgins: 'We've nothing to lose and everything to gain'

Ireland's Eve Higgins. Pic: Gavin Cullen/Inpho

Ireland will go to a near sold-out Twickenham on Saturday, looking to do their utmost to spoil England’s World Cup-winning party with Eve Higgins believing there has not been a better time to catch an all-conquering team transitioning into a new four-year cycle.

Do not be mistaken that England will not start the 2026 Guinness Six Nations as heavy favourites to win the championship for an eighth year in a row, nor to extend their current unbeaten run to a 34th consecutive win in front of a home crowd upwards of 75,000 as their idols play their first game since lifting the World Cup at the same stadium following their final victory over Canada last September 27.

Yet there is a sense within the Irish camp that there is an opportunity for the mother of all upsets at Twickenham this weekend and inside centre Higgins was happy to vocalise it.

Named to reprise the midfield partnership with Aoife Dalton which started last time out in the narrow World Cup quarter-final defeat to France in Exeter seven months ago, Higgins’ viewpoint expressed on Wednesday was underlined 24 hours later by the England team named by head coach John Mitchell. 

It showed plenty of change from their crowning moment against the Canadians. 

Only six players which started the final remain with another four, including half-backs Zoe Harrison and Natasha Hunt, named on the bench for this round-one clash.

A good time to catch a team in transition?

“One hundred per cent,” Higgins said. “Like you said, they are in a team in transition. And congratulations to the few that are pregnant. And, yeah, it's going to look like a different England team, in a sense.

“Tatyana Heard has been in that centre point for, I don't know, the last number of tournaments. It's going to be different but obviously they do have great depth in their squad. So it's going to be a different challenge for us, but it's something that we're really going to thrive on and be excited about.” 

It is bullish confidence from a squad beaten 49-5 in the last season’s reverse fixture at Cork’s Virgin Media Park and Higgins added: “We've nothing to lose, genuinely, we've nothing to lose and everything to gain, in a sense.

“And I think genuinely, if you ask every single person in the squad, they're just excited to play. What an occasion. England have been leading the way in support and growing their game, growing their team identity, online and stuff. And they've really gained support. You saw that in the World Cup last year.

“The fact that they keep breaking new records, gaining support. Hopefully Twickenham will be sold out, it's looking like it will be close to that. It's just an exciting occasion to be a part of. And, yeah, 100 per cent, we’re going to go in here with nothing to lose.” 

Higgins, 26 and in line for her 33rd Ireland cap, is confident the lessons of that Cork defeat have been learned by the Irish squad. They had trailed just 7-5 at half-time in that round-three clash, before the scrum creaked and the floodgates opened in a harrowing second half.

“I suppose for the first 45, 50 minutes, we really took it to them,” the centre said. “But also we probably left two or three chances of scoring tries in that first half. And if you went in at half-time, even 20 points ahead, that could have been a very different outcome.

“And I think that's our main takeaway when we revisited that, was we created opportunities, we just need to take them. The difference between scoring a try and not converting that can do huge things mentally to other teams and it can change the way games are played out.

“We can gain confidence that we did create those opportunities and we just kind of need to take them at this stage.”