Borthwick with some changes.

England: Steward; Freeman, Lawrence, Dingwall, Arundell; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Heyes, Itoje, Chessum, T Curry, Earl, Pollock.
Replacements: George, Rodd, Davison, Coles, Pepper, Underhill, Van Poortvliet, M Smith.

Arundell a bit lucky both to not get a ban and then to keep his place. But there IS no substitute for pace, so hopefully he will come good this weekend. Steward is leading a charmed life, due I think to a lack of a viable alternative. He does need to show something more than he has done so far. LCD has to be very close to getting a card for his no arms chop tackle technique but offers some go forward above George. To be fair, I'd be OK with either but I would like to see us blooding a younger guy a bit more often. Tinkering in the back row was to be expected as things did not go to plan but I'm not sure that Pepper and Underhill offer the same impact off the bench. Selection of JVP and M Smith are both overdue and obvious to all but SB.

Steward lucky to keep his place at fullback.

But that team should be too strong for Ireland.

@sparky Yeah, like the last team were too strong for Scotland

@Catogrande said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

@sparky Yeah, like the last team were too strong for Scotland

You'll be fine. It's BAU against an Irish team in decline.

England by a comfortable 15-20.

@MN5 said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

@Catogrande said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

@sparky Yeah, like the last team were too strong for Scotland

You'll be fine. It's BAU against an Irish team in decline.

England by a comfortable 15-20.

Far from comfiortable but advantage England if Prendergast starts IMO.

Ireland are a team on the wane.. they are capable of grinding out a win v England who are also limited.
Farrell needs to make some big calls to reinvigorate his team sooner rather than later.

@Catogrande said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

@sparky Yeah, like the last team were too strong for Scotland

Might help if you didn't have fat, slow loosies and a lightweight front row.

@Bones

Not. Going. To. Respond...

Dammit!

In a game where I would like both to lose....I'm going with the puffy poms to make a huge statement.

@W32 said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

In a game where I would like both to lose....I'm going with the puffy poms to make a huge statement.

Yeah, this is a damn hard one to pick - I'm going for 0-0 all draw.

I think I have Stockholm Syndrome as I'd want the Wallabies to beat both these teams and that's something I never would have thought possible.

@W32 said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

In a game where I would like both to lose....

I was going to say that I slightly preferred England, but then I remembered they are starting Pillock Pollock.

I think we just heard the biggest over hype of the century.

Watching Arundel is like watching someone playing cheat code, like playing with Jonah Lomu in the Lomu game in the 90s.

Wowsers

Pollock knocks on, recollects, gets tackled, doesn't release, still held, tries to get back up....

Play on.

Snoorefest so far only highlight is @jet s I mean Itoje’s boots. Lots of errors and turnovers otherwise

Ford is having a mare

Ireland look the better side to me…. But the scrum

England really out of sorts again......

@Bones said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

I think we just heard the biggest over hype of the century.

Watching Arundel is like watching someone playing cheat code, like playing with Jonah Lomu in the Lomu game in the 90s.

Wowsers

Who the fuck said that?

@sparky said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

@Bones said in England v Ireland 2026 6N:

I think we just heard the biggest over hype of the century.

Watching Arundel is like watching someone playing cheat code, like playing with Jonah Lomu in the Lomu game in the 90s.

Wowsers

Who the fuck said that?

Sideline guy? Not the main commentator or the Irish guy.