Ahead of the very much anticipated battle between Ireland and England, we look at a crucial battle at out-half, scores to settle in the front row and the role that Manu Tuilagi will have to play.
Battle of the tens
Jonathan Sexton and Owen Farrell are always going to have a crucial role to play in any game they’re involved in but history suggests that their importance in this particular game will be more keenly felt than most.
Last season, albeit behind a completely dominant pack, Farrell kicked 20 out of 30 points as England steamrolled their way to victory in Twickenham. The year before, Jonathan Sexton scored 14 of Ireland’s 24 points as Declan Kidney’s men denied the auld enemy the Grand Slam at the Aviva Stadium.
Sexton was brilliant and authoritative and a deserved recipient of the man of the match award that day and it was probably the first time that he didn’t have to bother looking to the bench to see if Ronan O’Gara was being readied to come on in his stead after an hour or so. Two years on, there’s no doubting his stature in the current Irish side.
Last weekend showed that both players have arguably become the most important players for their respective nations right now. Brian O’Driscoll and Simon Zebo stole the limelight but Sexton was magnificent at out half against Wales. He directed operations from ten, he was strong in defence and unwavering from the kicking tee, while Farrell ran the show against the Scots, looked brimful of confidence and deserved the man of the match award.
In a game that is likely to be incredibly tight on Sunday, the contributions of both Sexton and Farrell will be crucial to the final outcome. With points likely to be at a premium, no chance to kick at goal will be spurned and with space similarly hard to come by, it will be to these two that their teammates look to spot or create a gap or a half-gap that could make all the difference.
Sexton and Farrell are probably the two form out-halves in Europe at the moment and their battle is possibly the most appealing aspect of what should be a belter of a game on Sunday.
The Irish front row have a score to settle
The Irish players have enough media savvy not to let any stray words slip from their mouths before Sunday, but surely Cian Healy, Rory Best and Mike Ross will be going out to settle a score against their front row counterparts this weekend.
As a team game, rugby is all about the collective, but don’t be fooled into thinking that individual pride doesn’t make any difference; it does.
Dan Cole, pictured tackling a bloody Denis Leamy, is the only English front row survivor from Twickenham last year
Healy, Best and Ross (even though he did have to cry off before half-time) will have gone through a lot of hurt over what they went through in London last year and although Dan Cole is the only survivor from the front row that played on the day, the Irish trio will be determined that if they are being talked about afterwards, that it will be for the right reasons.
The stats from last week’s scrums aren’t particularly instructive; both teams pretty much broke even with the opposition at the set-piece, but that little bit of extra motivation on the Irish side could see them come out on top.
If last year’s clash is anything to go by, they’ll need to.
A fresh Tuliagi is still a big threat
It’s an unfair blight on Billy Twelvetrees – who was classy against Scotland and who was compared to Mike Catt by none other than Brian O’Driscoll during the week – but most Irish rugby supporters were probably relieved when Manu Tuilagi’s name was excluded from the English starting XV this morning.
Good as Twelvetrees was last weekend, the memory of Tuilagi’s performance against the All-Blacks in December is still fresh in the memory, that game coming at the end of an Autumn series in which the Leicester Tigers centre scored four tries in four games, including one apiece against Southern Hemisphere giants Australia and New Zealand.
Irish fans will also remember Tuilagi’s display in the pre World Cup warm-up at the Aviva Stadium when he scored one try and almost got another after running the length of the pitch before being held up short by Geordan Murphy.
Hard as is to believe, Tuilagi is only 21 and while he has yet to consistently affect games on a regular basis, when he’s on form he’s a monster, hugely influential and nigh on impossible to stop.
He might not start but we would expect to see him come on at some stage in the second half, which wouldn’t be the greatest sight for a tiring Irish defence. Hopefully, from our perspective, whatever contribution he does make is not a decisive or a game-winning one.
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