Bernard Jackman says England will "smell blood" this Saturday if Ireland don't sort out their most glaring scrum issues ahead of their Six Nations trip to Twickenham.
Ireland got past Italy at Aviva Stadium last weekend but it was far from a flawless performance, the visitors' ruthless scrum-time aggression perhaps best summed up by the remarkable sight of Tadhg Furlong being hoisted into the air 65 minutes into the contest.
England are smarting after their loss to Scotland at Murrayfield, so Andy Farrell will expect a backlash. And Jackman took a deep-dive into one particular problem the head coach will be keen to remedy this week.
"There's obviously some technical issues," he said on the RTÉ Rugby Podcast.
"Very like South Africa, we failed to keep that hooker honest, and there's a mixture of the loosehead and our own hooker's ability to dominate there. So the tighthead is getting fairly exposed.
"It's weird at the moment. When you look at the Italian scrum... everybody is completely committed and on the same page and technically accurate. Whereas in our scrum, there's varying body heights, there's varying leg movements, there's varying angles. It's a horrific sight.
"We fixed it to a certain extent against France, but I think we have to... we saw France-Wales, France's scrum at the moment is the weakest part of their game, to such an extent they've actually brought Rabah Slimani back in this week because (they're facing) Italy, you know?
"Long-term, Rabah isn't the answer for France, but they're worried about their scrum against the Italian scrum, and that's credit to Italy, but we have things technically we need to do better. And as I said, England will smell blood there, if we're not better."
"In our scrum, there's varying body heights, there's varying leg movements, there's varying angles, it's a horrific sight" - How will Andy Farrell address Ireland's scrum issues? @bernardjackman analyses the area ahead of this weekend's clash with England #RTErugby pic.twitter.com/fojq77t4rx
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 18, 2026
Jackman suggested some solutions, short term and long term, as Ireland try to build towards next year's World Cup in Australia.
"I personally would go with (Rónan) Kelleher," he added.
"I think Dan (Sheehan) off the bench would be brilliant this week, and even though Kelleher was on the pitch for that really bad scrum, I think him, Tadgh (Furlong), I'd even go with Finlay Bealham on the bench, because he's actually our best scrummaging tighthead.
"If it did take off in a negative way, you'd have someone to come on who could potentially fix that, and I would go with Tom O'Toole.
"It's a gamble, I know, but again, we need to find out what we have. We know we have Paddy McCarthy, we know we've Andrew Porter, we know we've Jack Boyle on that side.
"There's a rumour that Porter may end up going back across to tighthead over the next while, and then O'Toole as a hybrid that can play both well, I think is an interesting prospect.
"I thought the way Farrell spoke about him after the game... I know they looked at him to play him against France at looseheads, and obviously backed off on that, but I think there's a strong chance he'll get game time again this week, whether it's a start or to come off the bench."
Expanding on the necessity for Ireland to do a bit of succession planning this year, Jackman said: "I think they're well stacked at looseheads. Obviously, Tadhg and Finlay Bealham, you know, post next World Cup, who knows?
"More than likely, over the next two or three years, they're not going to be around.
"So, Thomas Clarkson's done well, but you probably want to have a little bit more depth there.
"Talking of tightheads, my understanding is (Connacht's) Jack Aungier is definitely going to go to Munster. So what does that mean for Munster? Do Munster now still get a foreign tighthead?
"Do they stick with (Michael) Ala'alatoa? Obviously, it's a nice addition for them. What do Connacht do on that?
"So there's a little bit of movement around the Irish provinces. It's not as much probably as certain people would like, but there has been, with Matthew Devine going to Ulster, Ciarán Frawley going to Connacht, Aungier now going to Munster and obviously, Will Connors as well going to Connacht."
Watch England v Ireland in the Six Nations on Saturday from 1pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
