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Mary Hannigan: Mixed views on Six Nations threat England will pose to Ireland

John Fogarty wants to see an improvement; Caelan Doris is ready for a major test; but Gordon D’Arcy thinks Steve Borthwick’s side are still in transition

Scrum coach John Fogarty found Ireland's last Six Nations visit to Twickenham to be a very frustrating day. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Wed Mar 6 2024 - 10:31

When John Fogarty reflects on Ireland’s last Six Nations visit to Twickenham, you’d think he was analysing a humiliating defeat. “That was a huge disappointment,” he tells Gerry Thornley, “it was an unbelievably frustrating day. I would hope not to replicate what happened last time around. I don’t want to think about having to deal with that again.” Lest you forget, Ireland won 32-15, but the concession of five scrum penalties that day stung for Fogarty, him being Ireland’s scrum coach. Asked if Ireland can win without a functioning scrum next Saturday, he chuckled and said: “No scrum, no win.”

Needless to say, Fogarty isn’t paying much heed to all the talk about Ireland being red-hot favourites for this game, and neither is Caelan Doris. “I still rate England very highly as a team,” he tells Johnny Watterson. “If you go back a few months they came third at the World Cup. It takes a quality team to do that.” Gordon D’Arcy, though, reckons England are still a team in transition which “should really not be the case 18 matches into a coach’s tenure”, “the stagnation of their attack showing almost no discernible growth in Steve Borthwick’s reign”.

If Borthwick thinks he has problems, he should spare a thought for Eileen Gleeson - her Republic of Ireland team were drawn yesterday in a Nations League group with France, England and Sweden, the third, fourth and fifth ranked nations in the world. As our columnist Karen Duggan put it, “Mother of divine God … you feel like you’re staring down the barrel of a gun”. Gavin Cummiskey takes you through the gory details of the draw, with at least one of Ireland’s home games likely to be played at the Aviva Stadium.

In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning brings news that Monaghan and Wicklow look set to remain without Rory Beggan and Mark Jackson for the rest of their league campaigns, both players deciding to stay in the United States for an extra three weeks to help their pursuit of a professional NFL contract. And Seán Moran looks at Dublin’s increasingly impressive league form, their “old warriors” playing no small part in their progress.

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TV Watch: There are two more Champions League round of 16 games on your screens tonight, Manchester City, 3-1 up from the first leg, at home to FC Copenhagen (Virgin Media Two and TNT Sports 1, 8.0) and Real Madrid taking a 1-0 lead in to their meeting with RB Leipzig (TNT Sports 2, 8.0).

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