Bernard Jackman says Ireland must beware of a wounded England team, when the sides meet in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday.
Ireland are overwhelming favourites to defeat Steve Borthwick's side at Twickenham for a fifth time in a row, with the defending Six Nations champions looking to move a step closer to a famous back-to-back-Grand Slam.
While England have won two of their three games so far in the championship, Borthwick's side have looked disjointed in attack, as they get to grips with the head coach's new backroom team and gameplan.
But after trying and failing to expand their style of play in their 30-21 defeat to Scotland last time out, Jackman expects England to go back to basics, and adopt a plan similar to their World Cup semi-final against South Africa in which they gave the eventual champions a huge scare, only to lose narrowly 16-15.
"If I'm Steve Borthwick and I’m looking at data, or looking at what his team have done well previously against better sides, that's where I'm going," Jackman told the RTÉ Rugby podcast.
"I think that's the big challenge for him. Last week, it was a fallow weekend, he could say: 'This is our plan for Ireland. This is going to get the Twickenham crowd into the game, this is going to give us our best possible chance of winning'.
"I think those players will be all over that, because they’ll be hurt by what happened in Scotland and they’ll want to beat Ireland at Twickenham. That’s what I expect."
While Ireland eventually pulled clear late on to record bonus-point wins over England in both 2022 and 2023, they had to endure frustrating periods in both victories, in which England's kicking game and physicality frustrated them.
And Jackman expects more of the same from the hosts on Saturday.
If Keenan and Ringrose are both fit, how will Ireland line out against England? 🏴☘️@bernardjackman gives his thought on what Andy Farrell could do.
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"They do have some firepower. I think we're going to see a huge amount of aerial contestables and Ireland probably haven’t been tested that much in that area in this Six Nations.
"Wales’ kicking game is very poor, and we weren't under any pressure there, they were kicking it long so it wasn't tested. England’s kicking game is generally quite strong and if we start to lose a couple of those 60:40s in the air, then things change, they could get back-to-back possessions, they could look to kick again on the front foot or in transition.
"I think that’s where we could get into a battle. We scrummed really well against Wales, but that's not the litmus test. England is a step up. Our lineout had a couple of creaks against Wales, it’s improved a lot, but we lost a few at the back, but at least we were throwing to uncontested space and there was only inches in it.
"England’s defensive lineout is good, so if England put a bit of the squeeze on us at the set-piece and are very competitive under those high balls and we’re not as good as we need to be, this game will be much tougher than we would like."
And while Jackman believes England will be much-improved from their defeat to Scotland, he says they have to commit fully to a style of play, or else Ireland will run riot.
"If you're a team in evolution, you have to understand what’s important this weekend.
"Getting caught between two types of games will only make Ireland’s chance of winning easily more likely."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch England v Ireland in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday from 4pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Wales v France on Sunday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
