Andy Farrell: Nature of England's loss to France makes Irish task harder

England shipped a record defeat to France on Saturday but Andy Farrell says that fact makes Ireland's task more difficult on Saturday.

Les Bleus are the only other team who can nick the title off Ireland but they need a demoralised Red Rose team to come and do a job in Dublin.

Steve Borthwick's men conceded seven tries on the way to their biggest ever loss in Twickenham.

They made 13 handling errors and missed 27 tackles, while conceding seven penalties at the ruck over the course of a 53-10 loss. France turned them over 17 times.

On the one hand, it makes for good reading from an Irish point of view because it's a fair indication of the quality of the opposition but, on the other hand, they are unlikely be so poor next weekend.

"They will certainly be hurting and, I mean, it's a perfect opportunity to come and spoil the party," said head coach Farrell, ahead of Ireland's bid for just a fourth ever Grand Slam and the first on home soil since the 1948 clean sweep that was crowned in Belfast.

"That's the reality. So that will be a massive motivation for them.

"Is that bigger motivation than what we're gonna experience playing at home for our Grand Slam game on St Patrick's weekend? We'll see."

Asked to reflect on his native country's collapse against Fabien Galthie's 2022 champions, Farrell said: "I definitely don't [expect the same sort of performance].

"The game ran away from them at 27-3. There's probably no way back in that regard.

"You're trying to chance your arm, your gameplan is out of the window a little bit and the game just folds doesn't it.

"It just threw itself out there. Those games are one-offs and there's some great play from France etc but I think it was more shock than anything.

"France were on a high and the