Preview: Belief key for Ireland in England 'semi-final'

You have to go back seven games to find a match between Ireland and England that came down to one score.

And even Ireland's 13-9 victory in 2017, to end an 18-match winning run and a Grand Slam chance for England, tells a lie, such was the dominance of the home side in Dublin that day.

The statistic that in the entire history of the Six Nations the team losing at half-time in this fixture has never won the game just underscores the importance of a fast start.

That’s never easy for the visitors to Twickenham where Eddie Jones’ side are not only defending a record of 22 wins in their last 25 championship games, but also holding on to their title chances.

With an opening-round defeat to Scotland against their name, England need to beat Ireland then go to Paris next Saturday night and halt Les Bleus, who squeezed past Wales last night, 13-9. Jones has called the game a "semi-final".

Similarly, Andy Farrell’s men, with wins over Wales and Italy and a loss against France, need to beat England here for the first time since 2018 to stay in the race.

The Guinness Six Nations meeting here two years ago ended in a dispiriting 24-12 loss with Ireland crumbling under the sheer ferocity of the chariot, failing to get a shot off and looking "silly" at times, said Johnny Sexton, who returns to the line-up as one of six changes to the team that beat 13-man Italy 57-6 two weeks ago.

"We are two years down the line, that’s a long time in rugby, they are also two years down the line," flanker Peter O’Mahony (below) told RTÉ Sport.

"We feel we’ve improved and we’ve that game and lots of other games that we’ve taken lessons from that hopefully we bank them and bring it to the weekend.

"We think we’ve evolved, our game plan, our skills, even our