{"id":778749,"date":"2026-02-21T06:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/778749\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T06:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:08:12","slug":"england-and-ireland-tensions-boiled-over-in-heated-touchline-spat-rugby-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/778749\/","title":{"rendered":"England and Ireland tensions boiled over in heated touchline spat | Rugby | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coaches – who’ll lead the nations in their clash at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday – both looked unimpressed going into the break with Ireland narrowly ahead 12-8 thanks to Jack Crowley scoring all 12 points. As they made their way towards their respective dressing rooms, their argument continued resulting in the pair walking down the tunnel together deep in discussion.<\/p>\n

Amid their dispute, the ITV commentary team described Farrell as being “rattled about something”. The only try in the first half came through England’s Ollie Lawrence. The 26-year-old believed he’d scored a second try but his effort was chalked off after the referee and TMO decided that a knock-on had occurred in the build-up to the try.<\/p>\n

It was England that came out on top after 80 minutes, clinching a 23-22 victory. Borthwick played down the encounter with his fellow head coach, but stopped short of explaining the details of his discussion with Farrell. “Absolutely fine,” the England boss said.<\/p>\n

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“Andy and I have known each other for a long time, we played alongside each other for England, we both represented England at the 2007 World Cup, so we go back a long way. What he has done with that Ireland team is just incredible. Very special. They are an incredible team and I thought today was a very special Test match.”<\/p>\n

He added: “It’s between Andy and I. I know people want to read into things like that, but I think Andy and I have a very good relationship. We were co-captains together at Saracens as players, we coached together on the Lions in 2017. I have incredible respect for him and what he has done with that team. Which, as I say, is a phenomenal team.”<\/p>\n

Heading into their weekend clash, England sit third in the table while Ireland fifth but just a point behind the Red Rose. Borthwick will certainly be buoyed by Henry Arundell dodging a suspension after he was sent off in last Saturday’s defeat to Scotland.<\/p>\n

Leading the tournament with four tries so far, the England wing was sin-binned for 20 minutes after picking up two yellow cards and an independent disciplinary hearing deemed the in-game punishment was sufficient and he’ll face no further sanction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The coaches – who’ll lead the nations in their clash at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday – both looked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[6162,748,393,39682,4884,39686,227098,4209,26349,16,15],"class_list":["post-778749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-andy-farrell","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-england-rugby-team","tag-great-britain","tag-ireland-rugby-team","tag-rugby-section","tag-six-nations","tag-steve-borthwick","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116107129977897308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}