Mike Catt: Ireland well-prepped to deal with England's blitz defence

A couple of hours after Ireland's 31-7 win against Wales last Saturday, Andy Farrell had half a smirk when he was asked about what preparations they would be making for England and the Felix Jones' 'Blitz defence'.

"It's something we’ve come up against before, and we all know that our lads are coached by the coach that made it up in the first place," the Ireland boss said.

Jones may have brought that aggressive, hard-off-the-line defence to England in January, but as Farrell hinted, its nothing new for this Irish team.

The bulk of this Irish squad will have come across the original version of that 'D' in the last 18 months in their wins over the Springboks in 2022 and 2023, but for the large Leinster core in this group, they've been learning the ins and outs of it for the last few months under its creator, Jacques Nienaber.

The South African's reputation as a defensive specialist has reached mythical levels in recent months, although two World Cup victories in a row will do that.

Leinster's new senior coach has had the media on a string since suggesting that it would take 14 games for him to get his defensive system up and running with the province.

We're suckers for detail, and jumped on that specific 14-week probation period like pigeons on a chip.

"It's very much helter skelter and it’s line-speed, and it puts you under pressure, and I think that’s always what we’ve thrived on as a team, especially over the last year, year and a half," Ireland attack coach Mike Catt says of his experiences going against the blitz defence, which former Ireland international Jones has now brought to England's coaching team since replacing Kevin Sinfield in the role.

"Being able to embrace that pressure and having the skillset to be able to try