Ireland v England match preview, coverage & key stats

Guinness Men's Six Nations: Ireland v England

Venue: Aviva Stadium Date: Saturday, 1 February Kick-off: 16:45 GMT

Coverage: Listen live on BBC Radio 5 Live & BBC Sounds; text commentary and highlights on BBC Sport website and app; watch on ITV1.

Overview

Ireland's bid to become the first side to win three successive outright titles in the long history of this championship gets under way on Saturday against an England team that halted their bid for back-to-back Grand Slams last year.

The Irish were below their best in the autumn and are now without head coach Andy Farrell for this tournament because of his Lions commitments, so Simon Easterby is in interim charge.

England, led by new captain Maro Itoje, will be desperate to improve on a 2024 in which they lost seven of their 12 matches, albeit all by small margins.

Since winning the last of their Six Nations titles in 2020 the Red Rose have finished fifth, third, fourth and third and of their nine wins from 20 matches in that time, four have been against Italy.

View from both camps

Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby: "It wasn't easy selecting a squad for this week's game given the quality of those who haven't made the final 23.

"Credit to those who missed out on selection for this game, there was obvious disappointment but they all stepped up brilliantly to help prepare the team this week.

"England are a talented squad with quality across their panel and we know that we will need to hit the ground running to deliver a winning performance.

"We're ready for the challenge and excited to get going."

England head coach Steve Borthwick: "You talk about the Six Nations, is it 10 million people watching it on TV?

"You'll have people sitting on their sofas at home with their England shirts on, hopefully jumping up and down.

"Hopefully they're going into work on a Monday morning feeling six inches taller because of the way their team played. That's what we want to bring."

Ireland team news

Ireland's Sam Prendergast keeps his place in the starting XV at fly-half ahead of Jack Crowley, who played every minute of last year's tournament.

Prendergast, 21, only made his debut in the autumn and has overcome a dead leg to start.

In the pack, Joe McCarthy has been ruled out so Ryan Baird is recalled to the back row and Tadhg Beirne switches to lock.

Finlay Bealham starts in place of the injured prop Tadhg Furlong, while hooker Dan Sheehan is on the bench after a long-term knee injury.

Ireland: 15-Keenan, 14-Hansen, 13-Ringrose, 12-Aki, 11-Lowe, 10-Prendergast, 9-Gibson-Park; 1-Porter, 2-Kelleher, 3-Bealham, 4-Ryan, 5-Beirne, 6-Baird, 7-van der Flier, 8-Doris (capt)

Replacements: 16-Sheehan, 17-Healy, 18-Clarkson, 19-Henderson, 20-Conan, 21-Murray, 22-Crowley, 23-Henshaw

England team news

Tom and Ben Curry will become the first twin brothers to start for England after being picked as flankers.

In the front row, Luke Cowan-Dickie starts at hooker after Jamie George was ruled out with a hamstring issue.

Uncapped wing Cadan Murley is preferred on the left wing to Ollie Sleightholme in the absence of the injured Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

Alex Mitchell has recovered from a knee problem to start at scrum-half, while Freddie Steward is at full-back in the absence of the injured George Furbank.

England: 15-Steward, 14-Freeman, 13-Lawrence, 12-Slade, 11-Murley, 10-Smith, 9-Mitchell; 1- Genge, 2-Cowan-Dickie, 3-Stuart, 4-Itoje (capt), 5-Martin, 6-Curry, 7-Curry, 8-Earl

Replacements: 16-Dan, 17-Baxter, 18-Heyes, 19-Chessum, 20-Cunningham-South, 21-Willis, 22-Randall, 23-Smith

Commentator's notes

Sara Orchard: England's victory over Ireland in last year's Six Nations did a lot of heavy lifting for their reputation across a difficult year.

This time, though, the fixture is in Dublin and the prospect of a recording-breaking third Six Nations title in a row could spur the Irish to start with a bang.

The home side are favourites and are packed with familiar faces that are already gracing some fantasy British and Irish Lions sides ahead of the summer.

However, a stuttering autumn campaign and continuing debate surrounding the future of the number 10 jersey has convinced some they could be vulnerable.

As for the visitors, England are yet to find a way of closing out fixtures from winning positions. The selection of the Curry twins will excite fans, as will the introduction of Tom Willis from the bench.

Meanwhile, a new captain, who is expected to go the whole 80 minutes, is part of the plan to turn near-misses into convincing victories.

Match facts

Head-to-head

• England ended a run of four straight defeats by Ireland with a 23-22 victory at Twickenham last year.

• Steve Borthwick's side were behind at half-time in that game, making it the first time this fixture had been won by the team who trailed at the break since the 1996 Five Nations when England won 28-15.

• Ireland have only twice before enjoyed a longer winning run at home against England than the three in a row they are currently on.

Ireland

• Ireland are aiming to become the first side to win three successive Six Nations titles. In this tournament's various guises winning more than two in a row has only been achieved when including shared titles, most recently by France between 1986 and 1989 (two outright, two shared).

• They have lost just two of their last 29 home fixtures in the Six Nations (W25, D2).

• On only four occasions has a team averaged 200 or more passes per game in a Six Nations campaign, with Ireland responsible for all four (2017, 2018, 2022 and 2024).

• They were the only team to record a scrum success rate of 90% or better while their 91% success rate at the line-out was the joint best of any team alongside England.

• James Lowe was the only player to gain over 300m in last year's tournament. He has scored four tries in five games against England.

England

• England's seven Six Nations titles are more than any other side, but their last came in 2020.

• They trailed at half-time in all of their championship matches last year for the first time since the 1974 Five Nations. They came back to win three of those matches.

• Their three Six Nations wins last year came by just three points (v Italy), two points (v Wales) and one point (v Ireland).

• No side averaged more 22 entries per game (9.6) than England in the 2024 championship, but their average of 2.1 points per entry was the lowest of any side.

• For the second year in a row, they had the poorest goal-kicking success rate of just 67%.

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