England are still hoping Tom Curry and Alex Dombrandt will be available to face Ireland after both forwards were included in a 26-man squad for Saturday’s penultimate Six Nations weekend. Wasps’ uncapped forward Alfie Barbeary, though, has been retained as cover with his clubmate Joe Launchbury poised for his first matchday involvement in this year’s tournament at the expense of Saracens’ Nick Isiekwe.
Curry came off at half-time against Wales after failing a head injury assessment while Dombrandt has been in isolation since testing positive for Covid-19 last Friday. The absence of the fit-again Sam Underhill suggests England remain optimistic about Curry’s prognosis, with Exeter’s Sam Simmonds on hand to join the starting back row if Dombrandt cannot train on Thursday.
It is more than possible England will field a mere four starting survivors from last year’s 32-18 defeat in Dublin when Ireland took a firm early grip and never let go. With the Vunipola brothers dropped, Mark Wilson having retired and injury having sidelined five others, it may be that only Curry, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje and Charlie Ewels kick off both games.
The hosts are already braced for a seriously physical encounter amid suggestions Twickenham could witness a “bar-room brawl” on Saturday. The former Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan believes the home side will be wanting to make a no-nonsense statement and England’s prop Joe Marler also anticipates a “ding-dong” contest this weekend.
Scotland will complete their Guinness Six Nations campaign without Duhan van der Merwe [pictured].
The 26-year-old has been hit with a three-week ban after he was sent off for reckless or dangerous play during Worcester's defeat at London Irish in the Premiership on Saturday. He will be unavailable for Gregor Townsend's side's remaining games against Italy and Ireland.
"[Van der Merwe] accepted that foul play occurred but questioned whether the red card threshold had been met," read a statement. "The panel upheld the red card and Van der Merwe received a three-week ban, however, subject to completing the World Rugby Coaching Intervention programme he will be free again to play against Gloucester on 25 March."
O’Sullivan’s view is that England are potentially dangerous opponents because they will be desperate not to finish in the championship’s bottom half for a second consecutive season. “If they lose their last two Six Nations games it will be very difficult,” O’Sullivan told BBC Radio Ulster. “They need a result and for that reason they are very dangerous. This will be a bar-room brawl and we need to be ready for it.”
Marler, England’s most seasoned forward, does not disagree with him. “It’s probably a fair assumption. A nice, clean bar brawl, though, none of the dirty stuff. No gouging or glass-throwing, just the clean stuff. They are very aggressive at the breakdown and love chucking numbers in there. So it is going to be a ding-dong.”
For that reason, according to the 31-year-old Marler, there has been an extra edge to England training in Bagshot with Eddie Jones’s side facing daunting fixtures against Ireland and France on successive weekends. “There’s definitely a bigger sense of ‘OK, Ireland are very good’. With the greatest respect Wales were missing a fair few names. There was probably a little more expectation on us to win that game whereas Ireland are full bore and have been together for some time now. It was definitely noticeable in training.”
Marler, though, also says he can barely recall England not being the favourites to win at home, as Jones has been suggesting this week. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt like an underdog at Twickenham … maybe against New Zealand once. [But] we know how good they are so we have to be right on the money. We’ll have to be sugar-hot in order to get the win. Most games are won by the most physically dominant team. We’ll need to win that battle in order to put them under enough pressure to give us time to put our game on the park.” The Six Nations, meanwhile, is to stage an inaugural Under-18 women’s tournament in Edinburgh next month.
