'I'm not Mystic Meg' - Ireland head coach Farrell expects England to slow down game

Andy Farrell expects England will try to take the wind out of Irish sails when the teams meet in Twickenham on Saturday.

Ireland have won the last two championship meetings by 17 points (32-15 in 2022) and 13 points (29-16 in 2023) but struggled for long periods against 14 men in both games, eventually wearing England down.

Asked if he was confident that Ireland would be able to find a rhythm sooner this time around, he told RTÉ Sport: "I'm not Mystic Meg, I don't know what's going to happen.

"England had a say in how we performed that day [last season].

"You take every game on its own course really and judge it, and England did very well at slowing us down last year.

"There were a lot of stoppages within the game and it wasn't just errors, the game was slow.

"Whether that's a tactic of theirs or not, I don't know, but we'll have to expect more of the same, I would have thought.

"We'll take each minute as it comes, that's the nature of the game.

"That was a year ago, and then we go back a couple of weeks against Wales, we want to do better then as well, so that's always going to be the case."

Farrell's side can win a second consecutive championship with a bonus-point victory in London on Saturday.

Standing in their way are World Cup bronze medalists England, who have beaten Italy and Wales but lost to Scotland last time out.

"I constantly say everyone loves the Six Nations so much because it changes so much week on week" he said.

"Scotland were unbelievably unlucky for all sorts of reasons for not getting over the line against France and I’m sure that concentrates the mind in the next two weeks leading up to the England game.

"I’ve no doubt that England would have loved to have put the best performance out against Scotland and come