Phoney calm before the storm

Diplomacy continued to rule yesterday in the run-up to tomorrow's England-Ireland skirmish in Twickenham. Both camps seemed intent on killing each other with kindness before they set about taking each other's limbs apart.

Mindful of the way a comment by David Corkery concerning English arrogance was used as a motivational tool prior to the Twickenham meeting two years ago, the Irish have been tip-toeing on eggshells in public this week. And earlier in the day England coach Clive Woodward was trotting out the usual old stuff about yep, you guessed it, Irish "passion".

There were no last-minute snags in the respective build-ups. Ireland manager Donal Lenihan reported "no difficulties" and confirmed that Bob Casey's ankle strain had cleared up, enabling Ireland's one full debutant at Twickenham to take a full part in yesterday's concluding hour-and-a-quarter closed session in London.

For both teams there is clearly a World Cup hangover at work which only a game can cure and hence tomorrow afternoon can't come quickly enough. Lenihan admitted that it was vital for this Irish team to pick up on the feel-good factor generated by the wins by Munster and Leinster. Even England captain Matt Dawson stressed that Leinster's wins over Leicester "showed how far the Irish provinces have advanced".

This has its psychological benefits too: Lenihan pointed out that "for the equivalent fixture last year (against France), Ulster and the other provinces had done particularly well against French teams and that gave us a huge boost going into that match. The fact that Leinster and Munster have beaten sides like Leicester and Saracens has given all the players a huge boost again.

"The fact that our own younger, home-based players who wouldn't have played against those players before this year have had some success against them means they don't have trepidation going in to play against them."

Not wanting to sound over-confident, Lenihan added the rider that "England have always been a huge difficulty for us going in to Twickenham. We've only won five times in the last century in Twickenham, so I suppose history isn't on our side and we'd always have huge respect for England."

Ireland captain Keith Wood suggested that this might not have been the case last year.

"I think as a nation we crave success and at times we get a bit carried away. I don't know if our expectations were too high the last time but maybe we factored out England, which we shouldn't have done. There's a certain amount of pressure on us this time.

"We know we have to perform and play a better brand, and a winning brand, of rugby, if possible."

Wood also played down the theory that England might in some way be ripe for the taking. "The only side that came out of the World Cup with credit were Australia. For most of the rest it would have been seen as failure. I wouldn't say it's a time of huge panic for England. It (tomorrow's match) is a daunting enough task." The changes, largely enforced, on the England back line could act as a double-edged sword for the visitors. "It's a different prospect from the team they put out in the World Cup," commented Ireland's assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan. "We've yet to see them play so it's very hard to make judgments on them. We have our own views on what they might do but that's for Saturday."

There was across-the-board agreement that recently-introduced law changes were for the benefit of the game, with Ireland coach Warren Gatland hopeful that rugby would be given a lift after a World Cup lacking in spectacle.

However, the announcement of the new laws came late in the day, and Wood highlighted the difficulties in having only 10 or so days to become acquainted with them. Dawson saw the arrival of the sin bin as particularly important. "In the World Cup we found ourselves playing against hardened professional players who would far rather give away three points than risk giving away seven points," he said.