‘We’ve Got A Cracker To Look Forward To’ – Farrell

Head coach Andy Farrell says Ireland are ‘ready for anything that’s going to be thrown at us’ as they tune up for what promises to be another titanic tussle with old rivals England.

This will be the teams’ 144th senior Men’s international match stretching back to the historic inaugural meeting 151 years ago at the Oval in London. England lead the way with 81 wins, but Farrell’s men have won five of the last six encounters to take the Irish win total to 54.

It has been an up-and-down start to the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations for both sides, with one win and one defeat each. Ireland got back on track with a 20-13 victory over Italy, giving themselves some momentum to take into the Championship’s crucial middle round.

Farrell’s five changes for Saturday’s game in London bring the number of caps in the starting XV from 456 up to 663. The matchday squad includes 13 members of the 2025 British & Irish Lions squad, and eleven players who were part of Ireland’s last win at Twickenham in 2022.

“I mean with the squad that we’ve got, we’ve been trying to give a chance to grow the squad obviously with giving people different experiences in Paris or even last week with Edwin (Edogbo), etc,” explained Farrell, ahead of this weekend’s trip to Allianz Stadium.

“But I suppose as a group, game three at Twickenham is trying to learn from Paris, the experience of that, and learn from past experiences from Twickenham as well.

“We’ve won pretty important games there. We’ve also lost there a few times recently. Pretty similar story to a couple of years ago, isn’t it?

“Coming on the back of Scotland beating England, and England being told that they had to have a reaction, and they did and played some great rugby and won on the bell there (beating Ireland 23-22).

“So yeah, having lads within the group who have been there and felt that and how they can portray that experience down to somebody like a Robert Baloucoune, etc., is pretty important.”

Across the first six years of Farrell’s coaching reign, Ireland have recorded five wins out of eight against England, including four in a row between the 2021 Six Nations and a 2023 Rugby World Cup warm-up fixture.

Jamison Gibson-Park, one of the changes for Saturday, was the player-of-the-match during 2022’s 32-15 triumph – Ireland’s biggest ever winning margin away from home against England – and also received the accolade when they prevailed 27-22 at the Aviva Stadium twelve months ago.

After not being involved against Italy in round 2, Josh van der Flier returns at openside flanker, and like Gibson-Park, Jack Crowley, Tadhg Furlong, and Tadhg Beirne have all been bumped up from the bench to reclaim starting places. This will be a first start for the fit-again Furlong since facing South Africa in November.

“Like always, there’s a few different reasons that all get put together,” Farrell said of the changes to the team. “I suppose the main point to get out of selection is what’s the right balance for us as a team, where we’re at, and who we’re playing against in round three at Twickenham, which is obviously a big occasion.

“So, a few lads promoted from the bench, maybe a little bit fresher starting. A few lads that have not played coming into the squad as well over the last week or two, which freshens things up.

“Then obviously with different combinations and things like that, it’s the balance of what is right for us, certainly with the substitutes, etc.”

As much as Ireland versus France has been the match of the Championship in recent seasons, with four Six Nations titles between them in as many years, the England game has also been right up there for pure drama and excitement.

Steve Borthwick’s charges started and finished strongly in Dublin last year, but Ireland were still five points clear by the end, boosted by a brilliant 35-minute spell after half-time during which they scored 22 unanswered points, mostly thanks to tries from Bundee Aki, Beirne, and Dan Sheehan.

England were quick out of the blocks too in the 2024 clash at Twickenham, building a five-point lead thanks to an Ollie Lawrence try. Four Crowley penalties, and a couple of trademark finishes from James Lowe in the corner, had the visitors leading 22-20 late on.

However, Ireland’s Grand Slam hopes were dashed by Marcus Smith’s last-gasp drop goal. Farrell’s side went on to become back-to-back champions a week later, and while he praised the players’ resilience to ‘keep bouncing back’, he said that ‘England found a way in the end, they really deserved to win’.

Asked if that last visit to the home of England Rugby has been referenced in the build-up this week, he replied: “Yeah, we go back into the dark ages sometimes, we go back further than two years sometimes.

“Obviously last year was a pretty exciting game as well, like you would expect it to be. But we’re ready for anything that’s going to be thrown at us, because we expect England to have a reaction to that game (their 31-20 loss to Scotland in Edinburgh last Saturday).

“We know from what they’ve been saying, emotionally they thought they didn’t get it right. I suppose where they think their squad is at right now, they were obviously talking at the beginning of the tournament that they want to take it to the last weekend there in France.

“(Now) the Grand Slam is gone, but the competition is still on for them, and we’d like to think for us as well. So, it all adds up to what the Six Nations should be about.

“Different emotions week to week because of what’s happened the week before, and here we are at the halfway stage and we’ve got a cracker to look forward to.”

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