Ireland must not settle for breaking even in the physical battle against England tomorrow, says Andy Farrell, who wants his team to impose themselves at Twickenham.
The visitors for the round-three Guinness Six Nations clash arrive off the back of a heavy defeat to France and a less than convincing win over Italy in which their scrum came under huge pressure, as they coughed up four penalties and a free kick at that set-piece.
The English pack enjoyed superiority over Scotland during their 31-20 defeat and their forwards weigh, on average 112.9kg to Ireland's 111.8kg.
The Irish backs, however, enjoy a three kilo per man advantage over their English counterparts.
England have the highest maul success rate in the tournament, winning 15 and earning two penalties from their two games to date.
It's set to be another thrilling encounter between the sides as they battle to keep in touch with France and maintain their championship hopes.
Jack Crowley will start for Ireland in Saturday's Guinness Six Nations game against England with Sam Prendergast left out of the matchday 23 #RTErugby pic.twitter.com/YBX5vvvYDi
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 19, 2026
"You would always expect me to say [improvements] across the board but the obvious one is if you are just trying to get parity in the up-front battle then you're not ambitious enough yourself," said head coach Farrell, who won eight caps with the Red Rose in 2007.
"We want to make sure that our set-piece and the way that we go forward in general as far as the gainline is concerned, both sides of the ball is pretty important against an English side that is very good at that.
"The English thrive on the high-ball situation and the lack of discipline from the opposition to kick you into the 22, and put you under pressure so we need to make sure that our discipline and our collective plan as far as the overall game, as far as the kicking game is concerned, is pretty important."
As head coach of the British and Irish Lions squad that beat Australia 2-1 last summer, Farrell took 15 England players on tour.
Eleven of that number are in the squad for tomorrow's 2.10pm kick off and Farrell knows their quality better than anyone.
He was asked specifically about 21-year-old Northampton back row Henry Pollock (below), who gets his first start on his eighth cap.
"They're good players, that's why they got picked in the first place for the Lions," said the 50-year-old.
"I suppose mainly [on tour] you get to find out more about the person themselves and what makes them tick and the type of character that they are.
"You would expect me to say that if they're getting selected for the British and Irish Lions then they tend to be pretty impressive people like everyone was on that tour.
"[Henry] is a bit of a free spirit, backs himself, great lad, good fun.
"He's a bundle of energy and that's what they're looking for as far as bringing him into the starting line, like we've done with a few as well."
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
Watch France v Italy in the Six Nations on Sunday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
