'When any team puts 50 on you, there's a wee element of surprise there'
Ireland lock Iain Henderson hopes painful memories of being humiliated by England in 2019 can help clinch Triple Crown glory at Twickenham.
Andy Farrell’s side travel to London later this month having made a flying start to the Guinness Six Nations by dispatching Scotland and Wales in successive weeks.
Ireland collapsed to an embarrassing 57-15 defeat to Eddie Jones’ men during a World Cup warm-up match last summer, just over six months after being beaten 32-20 by them on home soil in the Six Nations.
New All Blacks boss Ian Foster has stressed the importance of keeping South Africa in the Rugby Championship.https://t.co/JjPJegCRJP
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 10, 2020
Ulster captain Henderson admits the heavier of those two emphatic losses remains etched in Irish minds and is eager to make positive use of that chastening experience when they attempt to complete a clean sweep of victories over the home nations in a fortnight’s time.
“Obviously the Triple Crown is something that would be great to win,” said Henderson.
“But what a lot of the players will be thinking about is the last game that we had in Twickenham and how that definitely didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.
“We’ll definitely be looking back at that and looking to see how we can make improvements and what we can do. I think when any team puts 50 on you, there’s a wee element of surprise there.
“I was quite lucky. I got my cap in 2016 after playing minimal minutes in the Premiership and I thought ‘here we go, I’m an England player’. And I told Eddie that,” https://t.co/i0Y66UUcdm
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 9, 2020
“We’ll look back at that, we’ll see what went wrong. But ultimately we’ll be wanting to produce a very different performance.”
Ireland, then under the guidance of former boss Joe Schmidt, shipped eight tries at the home of English rugby last August.
They made it back-to-back victories at the start of a new era under head coach Farrell with Saturday’s convincing 24-14 win over reigning Grand Slam champions Wales in Dublin.
Tries from Jordan Larmour, Tadhg Furlong, Josh Van Der Flier and Andrew Conway secured the statement bonus-point success, which followed an unconvincing opening-weekend win over the unfancied Scots.
Henderson believes a fast, physical start will be essential on February 23 at Twickenham as Ireland strive for further improvement and consistent performances.
“England will definitely be up for it, they’ll be looking to go after us, come out all guns blazing,” continued the 27-year-old.
SIX NATIONS XV – RD2
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– @alexshawsport picks his XV of the week from a wet and windy weekend of rugby ???https://t.co/sKKhkmReSU— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 9, 2020
“We’ve got a week off now, a week to regenerate and recuperate, and try and fix what we think needs fixed. And going into that England week we can really ramp up.
“There’s a lot to work on and a lot that we want to get better at and improve. Dominating them physically early on will be key but everyone wants to do that in every game.
“The quality we see in training and the quality we see guys producing for their provinces, we know it’s there and form’s one of those elusive things in sport that no-one can really explain.
“But when you get it right it feels great playing out there, it feels great amongst guys who are excited to make things happen.
“Hopefully as this tournament goes on we can bring more and more of it.”
The RFU have stamped on this particular Sunday morning story. https://t.co/ESxACMSVDB
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 9, 2020
England recovered from a surprise defeat to France in Paris by beating Scotland at Murrayfield to lift the Calcutta Cup.
Like team-mate Henderson, Ireland captain Johnny Sexton feels his team have a point to prove against the World Cup runners-up having suffered a “right old spanking” in each of last year’s meetings.
“It’s away from home and it’s against a team that were World Cup finalists and will be hurting (from the France defeat),” said the 34-year-old.
“(They are a) top-quality side and the last two times we’ve played England they’ve given us a right old spanking, so we need to up our game from those level of performances.
“It’s a tough place to go Twickenham and we haven’t had too many victories there over the years.
“It will certainly be no different now coming into this game.”
Watch: Andy Farrell and Johnny Sexton discuss Ireland’s defeat of Wales
Comments on RugbyPass
Brayden Iose and Peter Lakai are very exciting Super Rugby players but are too short and too light to ever be a Test 8 vs South Africa, France, Ireland, and England, Lakai could potentially be a Test player at 7 if he is allowed to focus on 7 for Hurricanes.
4 Go to commentsPencils “Thomas du Toit” into possible 2027 Bok squad.
1 Go to commentsDon’t see why Harrison makes the bench. Jones can play at 10 if needed, and there is a good case for starting her there to begin with if testing combinations. That would leave room for Sing on the bench
1 Go to commentsWhat a load of old bull!
1 Go to commentsOf the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.
26 Go to commentsIrish Rugby CEO be texting Andy Farrell “Andy, i found our next Kiwi Irishman”
5 Go to commentsI certainly don’t miss drinking beers at 8am in the morning watching rugby games being played in NZ.
1 Go to commentsThis looks like a damage limitation exercise for Wales, keeping back some of their more effective players for the last 20/25 minutes to try and counter England’s fresh legs so the Red Roses don’t rack up a big score.
1 Go to commentsVery unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
5 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
10 Go to commentsSimple reason for wanting him back. Robertson wants him as captain. Otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering chasing him. Not enough reason to come back just to mentor.
10 Go to comments