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A taste of what’s to come this afternoon:
England are top of the table by a point with France on their heels heading into round four. Ireland, meanwhile, are fifth on points difference with them and Scotland yet to score a point on the table.
Some stats ahead of this one for you. England’s starting squad has 485 caps between them compared to Ireland’s 185. The Red Roses have scored 31 tries so far this tournament while Ireland have crossed the line twice. England’s biggest win over Ireland was 79-0 in 2002.
Ireland’s Dorothy Wall, who is ruled out through injury today, responded to the talk of a record score this week. She said: “It’s insulting to what we do every day. It’s insulting to how we have to mentally and physically turn up every week, how hard we work, what we analyse, how painful it is after matches that you lose when you know that you aren’t good enough. There may be some thoughts that we aren’t taking ownership of our performances but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It hurts us as much as it would any team. To even suggest that we wouldn’t play a game against England is one of the most insulting things I’ve ever heard.”
Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams added: “There’s no doubt we want the Six Nations to be competitive. I think everyone does, as it makes better spectacles. England and France are ahead at the moment. Our job as a union is to continue to improve and develop. We are on our journey. There is an old expression that says you must lose sight of the shore to discover new lands. We are always conscious of closing gaps and being competitive. This is another weekend where we will find out a lot about ourselves and reflect and will be smart when we review. The more every team in the Six Nations is competitive, the better the competition is going to be and that is what you want. We want Ireland to be competitive and we are fighting really hard to get to that point.”
England head coach Simon Middleton has been speaking about the gap between nations this week. “It’s all dependent on how the unions get behind it,” Middleton told BBC Sport. “The rate of acceleration and closing the gap will all depend on funding. We have to make these games more competitive. We’ve been in this situation for a long time. We know going back eight years, Ireland were a real force, France, ourselves, and Wales beat an England side in 2015. I’m not sure it can continue in the guise it is now where it’s always going to come down to the last game, England and France, because that’s not good for anybody.”
The talk all week has been surrounding the scoreline at full-time for this fixture. Many are worried England could put 100 points on Ireland which could set back the growth of the game. I’ve written a piece on the possible outcome with the context of the difference between the teams:
The team news is here! Ireland have made three changes to their starting line-up with Vicky Irwin is in at centre and Molly Scuffil-McCabe starts at nine. The only change in the forwards is Brittany Hogan who is in for the injured Dorothy Wall.
Ireland: Delany; Doyle, Dalton, Irwin, Behan; O’Brien, Scuffil-McCabe; Djougang, Jones, Haney, Fryday (C), Monaghan, Hogan, Moore, Nic a Bháird.
Replacements: Nielson, McGrath, Buggy, O’Connor, Brown, Cronin, McGann, Deely
England, meanwhile, have made seven changes to their starting XV. Mo Hunt is in at nine, Claudia MacDonald is back on the wing and Ellie Kildunne starts at 15. There is a new front row with Hannah Botterman, Connie Powell and Maud Muir and Sarah Beckett comes in for the injured Cath O’Donnell.
England: Kildunne; Dow, Tuima, Heard, MacDonald; Aitchison, Hunt; Botterman, Powell, Muir, Aldcroft, Beckett, Kabeya, Packer (C), Matthews.
Replacements: Davies, Carson, Bern, Burns, Talling, Packer, Reed, Rowland.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to round four of the Women’s Six Nations with Ireland hosting England. There are rumours this could break the tournament record defeat with the Red Roses expected to put a huge score on Ireland. England have secured three bonus-point wins so far while Ireland have not won a match yet.
There has been talk all week about how the tournament needs to grow with the gap between nations still wide. The last time a nation won the title that was not England or France was Ireland in 2015. We will take a look at what head coaches have said on the topic in a short while.
There are some changes in both teams, I’ll bring you the full team news soon, but there are some headlines to point out. Mo Hunt starts for the first time since before the World Cup, she was left out of the tournament to New Zealand. For Ireland they are without Dorothy Wall due to injury.
I will bring you the team news now as it was released earlier this week. So stay tuned ahead of kick-off at 2.15pm BST.
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