Bernard Jackman: England have to bring Ireland into a battle

Bernard Jackman says Ireland must beware of a wounded England team, when the sides meet in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday.

Ireland are overwhelming favourites to defeat Steve Borthwick's side at Twickenham for a fifth time in a row, with the defending Six Nations champions looking to move a step closer to a famous back-to-back-Grand Slam.

While England have won two of their three games so far in the championship, Borthwick's side have looked disjointed in attack, as they get to grips with the head coach's new backroom team and gameplan.

But after trying and failing to expand their style of play in their 30-21 defeat to Scotland last time out, Jackman expects England to go back to basics, and adopt a plan similar to their World Cup semi-final against South Africa in which they gave the eventual champions a huge scare, only to lose narrowly 16-15.

"If I'm Steve Borthwick and I’m looking at data, or looking at what his team have done well previously against better sides, that's where I'm going," Jackman told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.

"I think that's the big challenge for him. Last week, it was a fallow weekend, he could say: 'This is our plan for Ireland. This is going to get the Twickenham crowd into the game, this is going to give us our best possible chance of winning'.

"I think those players will be all over that, because they’ll be hurt by what happened in Scotland and they’ll want to beat Ireland at Twickenham. That’s what I expect."

While Ireland eventually pulled clear late on to record bonus-point wins over England in both 2022 and 2023, they had to endure frustrating periods in both victories, in which England's kicking game and physicality frustrated them.

And Jackman expects more of the same from the hosts on