Ireland need to dominate the collisions, to put England on the back foot and to score tries.
They need a lot of other things to go their way too, but achieving those three goals should be the winning of Saturday’s Six Nations encounter.
Stephen Ferris knows what it is like to taste success in the green jersey at Twickenham. He was a winner there in 2010, having also beat England at Croke Park on the way to Grand Slam glory in 2009.
The former Ulster blindside tells SportsJOE that Joe Schmidt’s side are right up against it. But there is hope. When Joe Schmidt is involved, there is always hope.
Interestingly, in a week where Schmidt called up a trio of young players from Ulster, Connacht and Leinster – Stuart McCloskey, Ultan Dillane and Stuart McCloskey – Ferris is backing two Munster men to make an impact. He says:
“CJ Stander is really good going forward and you saw that against Wales when he made 23 carries and got man-of-the-natch. Very solid; very good.
“Against the French, it was a bit of a different day. Wet. Roll the sleeves up for more defensive work. Sometimes you have to go out on the pitch and tell yourself ‘Right, I have to dig in here. I won’t get as many carries.
“He is doing that well at the moment but there is more to come. He’s a big guy; a solid unit. I’d love to see him running around making a few more impact tackles and putting guys on their backsides. Giving guys a lift.”
Ireland have only managed a single try during this year’s championship. Famous victories of 2004, 2006 and 2010 all saw Ireland breach the home defence on multiple occasions. Ferris is looking to a man returning from a couple of weeks on the sidelines to make a difference:
“Keith Earls coming back into the mix [helps]. He had such a good scoring record during the World Cup.
“If there is someone who can get a counter-attack going it’s Keith. For me, the wingers have to provide the scores. I know Andrew Trimble has been doing a lot of defensive work but himself and Keith Earls, fingers crossed they get over the tryline.”
As someone who was part of the Ireland pack that got moshed by England in the 30-9 loss in 2012, Ferris is delighted that Mike Ross and Cian Healy are back in the mix.
“We got obliterated in the scrum in 2012 and, as a consequence, got blown off the pitch.
“If our set-piece holds up, hopefully we can get a result. We’ve won there before. Can we do it again? It will certainly be a hard task.”
Ireland go into the Saturday afternoon clash as underdogs while England are comfortable favourites. You can get the full match odds here.
