RBS SIX NATIONS 2008
ENGLAND v IRELAND
Match Preview

A general feeling of indifference about the up and coming Twickenham fixture can be felt by a fair number of England supporters, and no doubt Irish ones as well. In last year’s Six Nations, England could have still clinched the competition by thrashing Wales in their final game. It of course didn’t happen, but on the back of a good win against France, there were many who believed it was a very real possibility. Not so in 2008, the only things England and Ireland will have to play for are pride, player reputation, and perhaps even the future of their respective coaching teams.

For those of you who have been living under a rock in rugby terms, England coach Brian Ashton has made just one change to his starting XV from the one that put in arguably England’s most limp performance in years. Jonny Wilkinson has been dropped to the bench after his poor overall form during the tournament, with Wasps’ rising star Danny Cipriani finally being given a proper game for England.

The twenty year old has been in fantastic form for Wasps during their season, particularly in the high profile Heineken cup where he showed glimpses of genius during his games against Clermont Auvergne, Llanelli Scarlets and Munster. With Toby Flood currently occupying the inside centre shirt, Shane Geraghty and Ryan Lamb struggling for injury and Wilkinson for form, Cipriani will be hoping to grab his chance in this one off game, particularly in front of the home crowd at Twickenham. His partnership with Riki Flutey at Wasps has been a revelation for their club this year so it will be interesting to see if Cipriani can translate that success in the England shirt alongside Newcastle Falcon Toby Flood. Ashton has been talking up his latest fly half in the run up to the Ireland game.

"Danny has been playing exceptionally well at 10 for Wasps and was due to play last week but managed to side-step that one," Ashton quipped. “He is pretty quick on his feet and hopefully we will see him now at long last out on the field in a starting XV. He has a vast range of skills and hopefully he will have good authority in terms of his decision-making and his work without the ball. He is going to have to defend as well as attack."

James Haskell has also managed to recover from the twisted ankle he suffered against France in Paris three weeks ago, and has been named on the bench in place of Gloucester back rower Luke Narraway. Tom Croft keeps his place in the starting XV.

There are many England players who can count themselves very lucky to have been given a chance at redemption this weekend, although singling out Wilkinson can’t and shouldn’t be interpreted as the only problem England had against Scotland last weekend. Controversial selection Lesley Vainikolo will be desperate to finally put in a powerful and effective, let alone visible, performance against Ireland after enduring a difficult eighty minutes against Scotland in horrible conditions.

Ireland, who are struggling for form themselves, have recalled Geordan Murphy at full-back for Saturday's Six Nations date with England at Twickenham. With skipper Brian O'Driscoll injured, Shane Horgan moves inside to join Andrew Trimble at centre with Robert Kearney returning to the left wing. The pack remains the same while Ronan O'Gara will lead Ireland for the first time while winning his 82nd cap. O'Gara has said that he will accept "personal responsibility" if his team produce another poor display in Saturday's game against England.

O'Gara is determined to lead Ireland to their third successive victory at Twickenham.

"It's a massive occasion for us," said the Munster fly-half. Not only are we representing the Irish rugby team, we're representing the Irish public. We can't change the result against Wales, it's gone now. It's important for this team and the players, whose confidence levels aren't as high as they should be, that we make sure we're in the best frame of mind about this weekend. We have to be positive - and I'm excited by this game because it's England at Twickenham. It's a one-off game.There might not be much at stake in terms of finishing position but pride is on the line for me personally and the team.”

One could argue that it’s become fairly predictable when England will and won’t perform. Given the evidence from the previous few seasons, the team only seem put in a fired up, passionate, efficient performance on the back of a harsh defeat and a difficult week at the hands of the fans and media, when the squad go into a ‘backs against the wall’ mentality. As well as this a glorious win is usually followed by another poor loss. Given the immense pressure and slating the players and coaching staff have received this week after their awful performance in Murrayfield, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a far better performance against Ireland. The question remains however, of how much that will teach us.

Scotland may get ridiculed for their inability to score tries, however it would be nice to see England score some that aren’t due to a) a cross field kick, b) a charge down, c) a crunching tackle/knock on. In that regard, England can be considered almost exactly as creatively-lacking as Scotland. Consider for a moment last year’s Six Nations, England were running in tries from everywhere. Catt, Ellis, Geraghty, Flood, Strettle, Robinson: all on the end of fantastic sweeping moves in most games of their campaign. This year? A nice Wilkinson/Sackey play, a well-timed Vainikolo offload, and a short range Wigglesworth score. That’s about it. What does that say of the direction England have travelled this past year?

You can almost imagine Brian Ashton counting down the days until the new agreement between the PRL and the RFU takes effect in time for next year’s Autumn Internationals. For the moment though, there’s one last game this competition, hopefully to salvage a bit of pride.


England: I Balshaw; P Sackey, J Noon, T Flood, L Vainikolo; D Cipriani, R Wigglesworth; A Sheridan, L Mears, P Vickery (capt), S Shaw, S Borthwick, T Croft, M Lipman, N Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: G Chuter, M Stevens, B Kay, J Haskell, P Hodgson, J Wilkinson, M Tait.

Ireland: G Murphy; T Bowe, S Horgan, A Trimble, R Kearney; R O'Gara (capt), E Reddan; M Horan, R Best, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, D Leamy, D Wallace, J Heaslip.
Replacements: B Jackman, T Buckley, M O'Driscoll, S Easterby, P Stringer, P Wallace, L Fitzgerald.