No surprises likely this time

The Task facing Ireland this afternoon is enormous, greater than the task which faced them before the French match. On that occasion, the element of surprise was on their side. This time, there is a major difference because the performance in Paris will have forewarned the English, many of whom will still have memories of the defeats by Ireland in 1993 and 1994. During the week, I was wondering about what kind of a game England would play against the Irish. Clive Woodward, I suspect, would want to try and run Ireland off the park in the first 15 minutes, thus forcing Ireland to play "catch-up" rugby for the rest of the match.

However, with the selection of Mike Catt on the wing, it may well be that the more cautionary approach of John Mitchell has prevailed and that England will will try and hammer Ireland up front early on, before opening the game up. Catt, I presume, has been selected to deal with the expected bombardment by Eric Elwood and Conor McGuinness, which has been known to discomfit some English wingers in the past.

From an Irish point of view, I hope the English play the game tight early on because, I believe, this gives us our best chance. As long as the game is tight and the scoreline is favourable, we will be able to compete, but I hate to think what might happen if England get a few scores on the board early on. We have a major problem at the moment and that is scoring tries. In an effort to claw back a 10-point or greater margin, we could be lured into playing a game for which we do not have the essential elements of speed and skill at the moment.

The problem is trying to predict how the Irish team will perform. They surprised everyone (probably even themselves) in Paris by the bravery and courage which they displayed over the entire 80 minutes. Similarly, I must say, they surprised me with the dreadful way they played in the last 40 minutes of the match against Wales, particularly when they had started as well as they had finished in Paris. The players will have been very hurt by their own performance against Wales and just as after the Scottish match, they will want to make amends this afternoon. However, I do not believe that they will find it as easy against the English, who appear, to me, to be more hardened and professional in their approach than they have been in the past.

Our pack is facing a tough battle. We should certainly be able to hold our own in the line-outs (which have been a cause for concern each time that Keith Wood has been substituted), but our scrum will certainly be severely tested today. England will try to establish themselves in this area in order to give their back row a pattern.

If the Irish scrum can stand up to this pressure and, even more importantly, impose themselves as they did on the French pack, it will go a long way towards upsetting the English pattern. The English forward coach, John Mitchell, is a New Zealander, where they place far more emphasis on their scrum as a platform than any other nation I know.

They will try to impose themselves here and will also try to turn the scrum each time in their favour, both in attack and defence. The English have replaced the injured Dean Ryan with Tony Diprose who is an extremely good ball-handler and who likes to carry the ball over the gain line. Both Irish wing-forwards will have to make a huge number of tackles today and Victor Costello will be required as much in defence as in attack.

Costello has had two outstanding games against France and Wales and, hopefully, he can continue that form this afternoon. I was disappointed at the manner in which we failed to use Ciaran Clarke's left foot in the Welsh match. He did a lot of kicking to touch from penalty situations, but I felt we should have used him far more in open play, particularly deep in our own half for kicking and similarly in attack, where he gives a variety of options.

I must confess, I was disappointed also to see Allen Clarke recalled to the replacements' bench. The withdrawal of Ross Nesdale gave the Irish selectors an ideal opportunity to introduce any one of a number of hookers onto the bench who have not been there for some time or who have never been there. I have in mind a number of hookers currently playing in the All-Ireland League.

The weather forecast for today is very bad and I must say that I am hoping that we get lots of rain and high winds in Twickenham. Those conditions would suit us a lot better than the English and, in those circumstances, anything could happen.

However, if the conditions are good, the English must be hot favourites to win this one. They have too many options at their disposal and our lack of scoring power, particularly among the backs, presents a huge obstacle for us at the moment.

(In an interview with Sean Kilfeather)