ONLINE
Live blog on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News Now App from 2.30pm.
RADIO
Live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 with Michael Corcoran.
TV
Highlights and analysis from Against the Head will be available on Monday at 8pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Live match coverage of the round three fixtures will be on Virgin Media One.
WEATHER
Early morning rain is expected to clear in the afternoon and it will be 12-13C.
Recovering from World Cup blues
Ireland's dominant win over Wales a fortnight ago was the first time Irish rugby fans were able to feel properly whole again (if that's not being too girl-band dramatic) since the scarring experience of the World Cup.
First-year head coach Andy Farrell hasn't changed a pile in terms of personnel. Jordan Larmour has, not surprisingly, stepped up to the mantle of replacing Rob Kearney as the automatic first-choice full back, Rob Herring has taken the retired Rory Best's spot at hooker and Andrew Conway is now getting a proper run on the wing.
What of the style of play?
A week ago, former England centre Mike Tindall sniffed that Ireland were doing more of the same in this championship and insisted that Wales had more potential, even after their loss in Dublin.
However, speaking on Against the Head this week, Bernard Jackman and Eddie O'Sullivan both insisted they were seeing the beginnings of a more expansive approach in 2020, with Ireland shifting the ball wide with a bit more speed and abandon than they demonstrated in 2019.
England, meanwhile, with the son of Ireland's coach at out-half, have made a deeply underwhelming start to the 2020 Six Nations.
Ellis Genge's late try in appalling weather conditions in Murrayfield did at least prevent the campaign from being a total write-off before they'd gotten to week three.
The first fortnight had a rather jaded air of World Cup hangover about it but Eddie Jones "flashed a warning" this week that England were now at intensity levels which surpassed those they managed at the World Cup.
"Thursday was by far the most intense session we've done," Jones boasted yesterday.
"We’re getting back to our World Cup level, or even above the World Cup level, whereas at the start of the Six Nations we were 20 per cent below that."
TEAMS:
The word came through yesterday that Iain Henderson was ruled out following the birth of his child and 33-year-old Devin Toner (probably not one to look out for in 2023) has been recalled to the side, the only change to the team from a fortnight ago.
The England coach, to the bemusement of some of the UK press corps, selected five locks and only one-winger in his 23-man squad. As it stands, Jonathan Joseph, more usually deployed at centre, will feature on the wing this weekend, with the fearsome Manu Tuilagi thrust back into it in the centre.
England: E Daly (Saracens); J May (Leicester), M Tuilagi (Leicester), O Farrell (Saracens, capt), J Joseph (Bath); G Ford (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), J George (Saracens), K Sinckler (Harlequins), M Itoje (Saracens), G Kruis (Saracens), C Lawes (Northampton), S Underhill (Bath), T Curry (Sale).
Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), E Genge (Leicester), W Stuart (Bath), J Launchbury (Wasps), C Ewels (Bath), B Earl (Saracens), W Heinz (Gloucester), H Slade (Exeter).
Ireland: Jordan Larmour; Andrew Conway, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Johnny Sexton (capt), Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong, Devin Toner, James Ryan, Peter O'Mahony, Josh van der Flier, CJ Stander.
Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane , Caelan Doris, John Cooney, Ross Byrne, Keith Earls.
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Ref watch:
Jaco Peyper's four-month spell in international purgatory is over. The South African oversees his first international match since he got a bit free-and-easy with the selfies with a bunch of merry Welsh supporters after their quarter-final win over France.
The French were not amused by his decision to join in the lampooning of Sebastian Vahaahamina after he himself had issued the France lock with a totally legitimate red card.
Peyper was dropped from the England-New Zealand semi-final match and the anti-craic brigade had their pound of flesh.
The South African has only refereed three games involving Ireland, two of them not especially happy experiences. The first was a non-contentious 46-24 win over Argentina in a November international in 2012, then there was an infamous match in Paris in 2016, when Yoann Maestri was let away with a gratuitous late hit on Johnny Sexton and a poor French team stole a 10-9 win.
He also oversaw the bracingly physical, and occasionally dirty, home game against New Zealand in 2016, when the All-Blacks gained a measure of revenge for Chicago.
Last five meetings:
2019: England 57-15 Ireland, Twickenham (World Cup warm-up)
2019: Ireland 20-32 England, Aviva Stadium (Six Nations)
2018: England 15-24 Ireland, Twickenham (Six Nations)
2017: Ireland 13-9 England, Aviva Stadium (Six Nations)
2016: England 21-10 Ireland, Twickenham (Six Nations)
Twickenham - happy hunting ground
"1883? Oh 1983! Okay."
So joked Eddie Jones last year when asked about the last time Scotland managed a win in Twickenham.
Fortunately, he couldn't adopt the same sneer with Ireland. Maybe, in 1883, he could have.
Paul Rouse detailed on 2fm's Game On on Thursday that back in the early days of the then 'Home Nations' in the late 19th century, Ireland defeats to England were so heavy and so routine that there was talk in the press of introducing a handicap system for the men in green shirts.
It looks rather different from the perspective of the 21st century. As we enter the third decade of Six Nations clashes in the new millennium, the head-to-head record reads 'Ireland 11, England 9'.
Four of those Ireland victories have come in south-west London. In addition to the emphatic Grand Slam sealing victory two years ago - when an otherwise irrelevant late surge from the hosts prevented a record home loss in the competition - there were triumphs in 2004, 2006 and 2010.
The 2004 match, which came only a few months after Clive Woodward's England won the World Cup, was the home side's first loss at Twickenham since the 1999 World Cup.
Two years later, Shane Horgan reached out to score a famous last-minute try to scoop another Triple Crown.
In 2010, Ireland, despite being dominated in the possession stakes, easily repelled a brutally unimaginative English attack and snaffled three tries themselves from minimal opportunities.
There were dark days amongst it all. There was 2008, when Eddie O'Sullivan's reign came to a sad and abject end with a 33-10 loss in Twickenham, a game best remembered cross-channel for witnessing the only really brilliant performance from Danny Cipriani in an England shirt.
And there was 2012, when a bruised and battered Irish scrum almost broke the land-speed record for running backwards in a grim second half.
But otherwise, RFU headquarters holds fond memories for recent generations of Irish players.
Trophy on the line
It's almost an after-thought these days but Ireland will seal the Triple Crown with a victory in Twickenham on Sunday.
In 1985, Ireland beat England at home to claim the Triple Crown and, in the process, the Five Nations Championship.
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No one bothered much with the latter in the amateur era. People invariably referred to the achievement of the Triple Crown at the time.
'The championship' seems to be a relatively modern construct.
These were the days when they didn't even waste time totting up points difference - that sort of stuff was only for accountants - and simply declared the competition to have been shared when teams at the top boasted the same number of wins. (In 1973, all five teams shared the Five Nations championship).
The Triple Crown doesn't carry the same lustre in the present era but there's a trophy on offer nowadays, and there has been since 2006. Brian O'Driscoll held it aloft in Twickers that year. Will Sexton be doing the same at the weekend?
